Auxilium Memoria: The Choices that Weren’t Our Own
by ginners
Summary: Her world has been twisted since Year One. Now, she’s chosen to be the guiding light to the one boy with whom she could never hold a proper conversation in a war where her choices could damn them all to hell. She is the Auxilium Memoria. HG. OCG.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: All characters from this chapter belong to the fabuloso J.K. Rowling. Can't say the same for later chapters but that's later, isn't it?

**Author's Note**: Halo, halo all. Welcome to my first fanfic. In lieu of a most annoying and lengthy general strike in B.C., I'd resorted to reading a whole bunch of this wonderful stuff and have decided to try my hand at writing it. Review and I shall build a small temple and burn incense for you each night. :Grin: Tell me whatever is right and wrong with it!

**WANTED**: Anyone want to help me edit? I realize that as much as my story makes sense to me, it probably isn't so clear to everyone else… I can't count on you to read my mind and know where I'm getting at so, I need someone to read over the chapters before they're posted to give me the 'go ahead'. I may repost the next three or four chapters depending on what has been edited.

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Title: Auxilium Memoria: The Choices that Weren't Our Own

Description: Her world had been bent and twisted the moment she stepped into Hogwarts. Suddenly she's chosen to be the guiding light to the one boy with whom she could never hold a proper conversation in a war where her choices could damn them all to hell. She is the Auxilium Memoria. H/G. OC/G.

Chapter 1: Maddening Indifference

Summer was always too hot, too crowded, too full of laughter at the Weasley home. It didn't take a random showering of galleons or the surprise laryngitis of Molly Weasley to bait the Weasley children into a delirium of nonchalance. Bill and Charlie had come home for the summer of Ginny's fifth year, and it sufficed to say that she was perhaps the only one who had shied away from the raucous pranks of her elder siblings. Lounging under the old beech tree, she observed her brothers playing a makeshift game of Quidditch. Apart from the lot, only Bill and Charlie had offered her a little peace of existence from time to time that she had so often found in Remus or Sirius back at Grimmauld Place.

Ginny grimaced, Sirius. Really, it was the last thing she needed to be thinking about that afternoon at The Burrow. Her parents had specifically moved back there to dissipate some of the residual bitterness around Sirius's death, and here was Ginny Weasley, the baby of the family, sitting under a beech tree scowling at her entire troupe of brothers playing Quidditch blissfully forgetful of the events of last summer, thinking about Sirius Black. _Fantasic_.

True enough, the week before had marked the one year anniversary of his death which Ginny commemorated alone in the wee hours of the morning under that very same beech tree, and so you'll forgive her black mood that afternoon, in the midst of so much joking around and a strong concentration of Fred and George Weasley, as she recalled the two other people who probably felt the impact of Sirius's death as acutely as she did: a certain Remus Lupin and one Harry Potter. She leaned into the tree and closed her eyes, soaking up the sunshine.

Harry Potter. Unlike Ron or Hermione or anyone else for that matter, Ginny knew the feeling. She knew how he felt. She knew it, felt it, taste it like bile on her tongue every single day and was hard-pressed to hope that the cutting pain in her chest might cease as the days passed. She winced to think about Harry. How much stress can one person handle, how many times could Life cheat him and throw him to the ground before he gives up?

Ginny was not a bad person by any means, but Sirius's death had made a patchwork quilt of her emotions and morality jarred as it was, she had told herself that someday she, and not Harry, would look down at a dying Bellatrix Lestrange and tell her slowly and patiently the story of Sirius Black and have the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She'd let Harry sit back and watch. Grotesque but necessary. Ginny wasn't sure she hated anyone as much as she hated Bellatrix Lestrange. Not even Tom… Yes, the same Tom that had pervaded her body and soul during her first year. She shuddered in the afternoon heat.

"OI, GINNY!" Slightly shocked out of her reverie, Ginny cracked open one eyelid and spied Fred looming over her. "Ah, knew you were still alive to us somewhere in there. How about a game? We miss our faaaaaaaaaavourite baby sis and her talents at knocking the stuffing out of wee Ron over there." Grinning, Fred gestured at Ron who was being successfully stalked by George and a volatile bludger.

"Reeeeheeeeheeeheeeeaaaaaly? Fine, two games tops." she said, resigned.

"Deal, baby sis." Fred hauled Ginny to her feet and grinned as she mounted her broom. Quidditch really was therapeutic she decided as she kicked off, the wind whipping through her hair, caught the Quaffle and charged a squawking Ron. Ten nothing: Ginny, George, and Charlie. Smiling wanly, she tucked the memory of Sirius in the back of her mind… maybe she'd go for the team again this year.

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Inside the kitchen of The Burrow, Arthur Weasley was having a far less pleasant day than hoped for. His wife stood before him, eyes blazing. If it weren't for her laryngitis, he was quite certain he'd be shredded by her lecturing. Still, fact remained fact, and the letter sitting on the kitchen table still bore the official seal of the Order.

"Molly, breathe before you hurt yourself." he said tiredly. "We're going back to Grimmauld Place."

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"They're coming back?" he asked blankly.

"Yes, Harry, they're coming back."

"They're coming back!"

"Yes, Harry, they're coming back." repeated Remus.

"_They're coming back!_" Really, sometimes Remus was worried about the boy. Harry stood there, a week into summer break, a zombie for most of the time, waving the letter in front of him. The Weasleys were coming back.

Hermione wandered into the kitchen. Dumbledore had forbidden her to go back home with her parents fearing the worst.

"They're coming back!" Harry stated gesturing to the letter. Hermione glanced warily at Remus.

"He's been at it for a while now."

"Emotional scarring?"

"Pending judgement."

"I'm worried."

"Mmm."

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Ginny stood in her room. Where to being? Where _to_ begin! Less than two hours ago, the sweating Weasley children had filed into the Burrow kitchen fearing yet another lecture on spending summer time wisely to find a very resigned Arthur Weasley holding a letter.

George had snatched it out of his father's grip, earning a well-placed glare from his mother, and proceeded to read aloud the contents to his siblings.

"Dear Arthur and Molly… well that ought to make us feel special, eh?" some amount snarling from Molly got him right back to the letter, "As it were, I feel it would be wiser for you and your family to stay at Grimmauld Place after all…"

…

And quite frankly after that the rest of the letter was quite forgotten. Ron whooped and thumped Fred on the back till the latter grew weary and slammed Ginny's hardcover copy of Hogwarts: A History on his head to which Ginny loudly protested, snatched back her book and otherwise felt a well of elation at the prospect of seeing some of the Order again. George eyed Fred and the two of them immediately excused themselves to go to their room to 'pack'. Bill ruffled Ginny's hair and Charlie jumped in to do his piece. Finally, the reactions died down and the Weasley children retreated to their respective rooms to pack for the trip.

So, Ginny stood in her room. Where _to_ begin:Ugh: Right. Clothes. She opened her trunk and piled several school shirts in. Robes came afterwards followed by her Gryffindor skirts, ties, shoes. She had haphazardly started throwing balled up socks into her trunk when one landed with a :thunk: rather uncharacteristic of balled up socks weighing several grams.

Intrigued, Ginny picked it up and immediately felt the presence of something very solid and very round. She unravelled the socks to catch a small ball the size of an egg in her palm. It was heavy, a glassy ball that broke the light the way water did. Well, it definitely wasn't hers, intriguing as it was.

Years of playing with unknown magical objects, a certain demonic diary coming to mind, Ginny learned not to toy with the mysterious. Slowly she wrapped it back in the socks, noting for the first time that they were definitely too large to be hers. Feeling more than a little perplexed, how on earth did the thing get into her sock collection? Ginny deposited it into her trunk vowing to ask Remus about it when she got back to Grimmauld Place.

Her belongings quickly piled and finally she stuffed the last of her quills into the wooden box. Big as it may be, the trunk had dated back to her mother's Hogwarts days. "How surprising." she remarked to no one in particular, "Ginevra Weasley toting a fossil to school yet again." Grunting, she slammed the lid shut. If she got half a word in edgewise, she'd get some decent dress robes this year that weren't of the mouldy variation. Worse comes to worse, she'd transfigure the bloody things out of dust. For all the bad that Tom Riddle had plunged her into, the inevitable fact remained that she was damned smart because of him.

The remainder of the afternoon quickly paled to evening and very soon Ginny finished wiping the dinner dishes dry, taking care to store them. When on earth she was going to eat off of those plates again she didn't even want to guess. The prospect of seeing her one third of her confidante again was an overwhelmingly welcoming idea so the dishes really could wait.

Ginny shut her eyes as she thought about the Confidante. She, in her memory which was concise and limitless, remembered their entire relationship to the last t… and it hurt her. Every conversation that passed between them had etched themselves into her mind, their smiles played and replayed. La Confidante.

_"Remus! Ponce!" Sirius sputtered, bursting into the room after him._

_"Sirius! Royal arse!" he replied by means of an answer. Remus sank into the armchair of the back Drawing Room. The last conversation with Dumbledore and the Order had been particularly trying and Sirius's comments really weren't helping the throbbing sensation in his temples. _

_"How can you sit there and talk to them like… like _that_ when they're trying their damnable best to parade Harry around like…like…" Sirius finished by flopping into the adjacent cough._

_"Eloquently put" Remus shot back. "I'm civil, if you will .The dog bites you, you don't very well bite the thing back. Harry's got a little more backbone than that, you know, he could fight them very easily himself."_

_"Harry's not James like they all think, you know. And he doesn't need another battle on top of the one he's dealing with already!" Sirius retorted. Remus frowned and very nearly replied. It was true though. Harry wasn't his father. He wasn't flamboyant; he wasn't a prankster; he didn't exude arrogance like his father had so endearingly done. Harry was not James Potter in the least. Damn, the boy just had to look so much like him. _

_"You're right."_

_"Of course I am."_

_"Well then, Sir All-Knowing-and-Pompous, perhaps you could - " _:fwump:. _Both men started, wands drawn. The clothed table in the corner had either taken to speaking ("Ouch!"), or… or Ginny Weasley was hiding there very quietly immerging just then with a less than sheepish look on her face._

_"Ouch."_

_"Yes, that has been established." said Sirius, eyebrows raised. Ginny scowled. Eyebrows were _not_ raised at her. She was young but she wasn't stupid or ignorant as the Order found convenient to think, and raised eyebrows simply weren't acceptable. _

_"'Ouch' for hitting the bloody table." she said. "But a big 'Damn you' for that one just now." Remus and Sirius exchanged glances. Now that wasn't expected… well, no one ever does expect the Spanish Inquisition, but still. "Damn you." she repeated. "If you've half the wit you're so reputed for back at Hogwarts you'd stop engraving your arse prints into those couches and tell someone about it. Tell Harry! Beat it into Dumbledore. I don't care. You've brilliantly pointed out the obvious, thank you very much, Sirius, Harry isn't his father. I'm not so sure the rest of them have cottoned on, go tell them that before Harry explodes from all the stress and we're all damned to hell!" _

_Okay. Ginny was having what you'd call a rough night. Hermione had rubbed her completely the wrong way about her upcoming O.W.L.s (the ones she had decided to take at the end of fourth year, unknown to everyone but Dumbledore), Ron had conveniently lost his balls and agreed wholeheartedly with her, and Harry was off brooding in the corner like he was the only one God had forsaken, and damn it all the hell, it was just a bad night. Ginny had retreated downstairs to the drawing room to gather her wits when she heard footsteps and threw herself under the table. Hearing the only two men in Harry's life who hadn't taken to patronizing him talk about him in his real light had smacked some life into her sulking state of mind, and it just irked her that none of the Order had even contemplated Harry being someone other than his dad: someone who didn't leap at an opportunity to show off his skill. Well, here it was… someone knew, and by god she'd get it through to the other as well… so... "Well?"_

_"Um yes… :cough, we'll just go down there and do that won't we?" asked Sirius pleasantly, "LISTEN HERE YOU HALF-FOSSILIZED ARSES. HARRY IS HARRY. JAMES IS JAMES. HARRY IS NOT JAMES. YOU WANT TO FIGHT? HUH? HALF-WITS:pause: … AH! I THOUGHT NOT!" he nodded vehemently to emphasize his point. "Yes, I'm sure that would go down splendidly with the Order."_

_Sirius's demonstration was funny. No, damn funny, it was hysterical. Ginny stood there like a rock. Then she cracked a tiny smile… then she completely lost it and fell on the ground laughing till tears threatened to spill. Very soon Remus and Sirius joined in. The three of them… the slandered remains of the legendary Marauders and the youngest Weasley all fell about laughing. _Laughing

That had been their very first conversation. That was two years ago. She and Remus and Sirius had had a wonderful friendship from that night on. She never failed to write them twice a week when summer had ended and Hogwarts took over. Remus and Sirius knew positively everything there was to know about Ginny, young though she was. She told them about the Diary… she told them what she told no one else. She told them how she feared she wasn't as innocent and pure as everyone took for granted she was; she feared the darkness that had pervaded the dreams since that blasted diary during her first year; she told them how terrified she was that Tom was not done with her. Yes, Ginny told them everything and now, Sirius was dead. Time was so unkind.

Sighing, she finished wiping the table and started up the stairs to her bed. It was to be her last night at The Burrow for many, many nights to come, but it didn't matter just then. Tomorrow she'd go back to Grimmauld Place, and she knew at Grimmauld Place there would be one person waiting for her in the back Drawing Room.

_How many special people change  
How many lives are living strange  
Where were you when we were getting high?  
Slowly walking down the hall  
Faster than a cannon ball  
Where were you while we were getting high? _

Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova  
A champagne supernova in the sky

Wake up the dawn and ask her why  
A dreamer dreams she never dies  
Wipe that tear away now from your eye  
Slowly walking down the hall  
Faster than a cannon ball  
Where were you when we were getting high?

Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova  
A champagne supernova in the sky

Cos people believe that they're  
Gonna get away for the summer  
But you and I, we live and die  
The world's still spinning round  
We don't know why  
Why, why, why, why

How many special people change  
How many lives are living strange  
Where were you when we were getting high?  
Slowly walking down the hall  
Faster than a cannon ball  
Where were you while we were getting high?

Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
Some day you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova  
A champagne supernova in the sky

Cos people believe that they're  
Gonna get away for the summer  
But you and I, we live and die  
The world's still spinning round  
We don't know why  
Why, why, why, why

How many special people change  
How many lives are living strange  
Where were you when we were getting high?  
We were getting high  
We were getting high  
We were getting high  
We were getting high

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Notes:

**Time frame**: In accordance with Rowling's books, the Order is established during the summer of Ginny's 3rd year. Sirius dies at the end of her fourth year. In this fic, Ginny befriends Remus and Sirius during the summer of her third year… she takes her O.W.L.s a year early due to her supreme brilliance, at the end of her fourth year… This coincides with Sirius's death. The "present" in this fic would currently be the beginning of the summer of leading to her sixth year. Sirius has been dead for a full year. Yeah… just thought this would be helpful because I was confused turdless while I was writing it!

**Black Ball Thing**: Well… it will be established in later chapters that this orb is, in fact, black, and its significance will come into play… decidedly later.

**La Confidante**: La Confidante is Ginny's affectionate nickname for the trio: Sirius, Remus and herself who met every other night during summertime at Grimmauld Place. Between the three, secrets had been told in expressed confidence and Ginny had found a little space of belonging… that's why Sirius's death has hit her like a charging rhinoceros, she really loved him.

**Champagne Supernova**: This one of my favourite songs by Oasis. Rest assured, I DID NOT write it. Treat is as a vague outline of Ginny's dream the night before she and her family are relocated to Grimmauld Place.

**Harry**: Harry will definitely become a little more uh, animated and energetic in the later chapters… He's coping with a hard time, poor dear.

**I hope you all enjoyed that! That particular chapter was edited solely by me, so if there are any pressing errors, please inform me of them. Tell what you thought! Cheers.**

**PT**

**Excerpt from Chapter Two:**

_Ginevra. _

_Ginny stirred… someone had called her name…_

_Several moments of silence passed. _

_Ginevra…_

_Okay, she definitely hadn't imagined it that time. Ginny sat up in bed and glanced warily around her bedroom. It was pitch black, and it really didn't sit well with her that she was hearing voices in the middle of the night calling her name._

_Ginevra! _

_She snapped her head to the wall next to her. Oh merciful Merlin, please don't say that the _wall _was talking to her. Ginny peered closely at it… wait a minute. The wall was blurred a little. Since when were walls blurred! She reached out with a hand and tentatively prodded the spot and yelped in surprise when her finger went clean through it. Argh! Permeable walls! Her finger still inside the wall, she sat stunned not knowing what to do until she felt a huge tug and found herself sprawling through the blurry spot in her wall and landing on the other side… on very hard stone. _

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I. AM. HORRID.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: All characters from this chapter belong to the fabuloso J.K. Rowling. Can't say the same for later chapters but we'll get to that later, won't we? Later is NOW. The beautiful Arion; however, is my own… as is Jordan, Nico, and Venice. Snorkebongs are also of my own invention!

**Author's Note**: I hope Chapter 1: Maddening Indifference was to everyone's liking! Um… apparently I can't post until three days after I've signed up for my account… why? Well, in any case, if that's the way it's going to be :snarky, I'll just have to continue writing and not wait for reviews. :Grin: How would you guys like it? That I basically upload all the chapters I've got at once? Or upload a chapter at a time and get reviews in between so I can use them for the next ones? I'll read the reviews and incorporate them no matter what… so I really don't have much of a preference here. However, reviews are key! As is "banana". :Grin:

**MODIFICATIONS**: Oh lord… I've modified this chapter many, maaaaaaany times… It's just a little snippet at the bottom this time.

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Title: Auxilium Memoria: The Choices that Weren't Our Own

Description: Her world had been bent and twisted the moment she stepped into Hogwarts. Suddenly she's chosen to be the guiding light to the one boy with whom she could never hold a proper conversation in a war where her choices could damn them all to hell. She is the Auxilium Memoria. H/G. OC/G.

Chapter Two: Grimmauld Place amongst Other Things

The morning dawned. Ginny cracked open one eyelid as was her habit. :Grunt: The sun, damnation, the sun just had to seep through her shutters _eeeeevery_ morning didn't it? She lifted a hand to half-hearted swat at the offending light. Waking up early during the summer time was not an option. Burying her head in her pillows scrunched her eyes and waited for the inevitable pounding on her door that her mother had taken to doing each morning to wake her up.

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP. Ah… and there it was. Ginny made an unintelligible noise and dragged herself through her sheets, onto the floor, and crawled on all fours to the bathroom. Most unfortunately, someone was already waiting there in line.

"Wow Ginners… Taken to practicing the art of the dishevelled porcupine?" Ginny snarled by ways of an answer, and proceeded to claw at the bathroom door. "That would be George in there… showering." Ginny stopped her clawing for half a second to fix a piercing do-I-really-look-like-I-give-half-a-gnome's-arse look at Fred. He intelligently retreated a bit and hollered at George that there was a possessed thing trying to get at him outside the bathroom. Quite efficiently, George immerged two minutes later to conveniently get in the way of Ginny's clawing which resulted in his receiving a rather smarting claw mark down his shins.

"Argh!" he yelled, looking at Ginny wide-eyed... like she really could care less that morning. She felt grungy; her hair resembled a road-kill squirrel, albeit a very red road-kill squirrel and she really just wanted a hot shower to clear her head.

She slammed the door shut only to open it again immediately afterwards to hurl a piece of clothing at George.

"Oh that's becoming, that is, older brother." she sneered, his boxers enveloping his head. One more yelp and he tore up the steps to the room he shared with his twin.

"I think we trained her well, mate".

"True that, twin, true that." The two boys regarded the stairway entrance to their room and wouldn't have been surprised if the possessed looking Ginny had crawled her way right up there to take a chunk out of each other them. Thankfully that did not occur as she had switched on the hot water and was slowly boiling herself a brilliant cherry colour. Mmm… hot water.

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Breakfast was another affair completely. Breakfast meant various interruptions with half-asleep brothers (Ron) towing trunks downstairs (Ron), tripping over various articles of clothing and shoes (Ron), and suffering an ambush from garden gnomes as he tried to load his possessions into the luggage Floo (Ron).

Before anymore damage could be done, Ginny floated down the stairs in a much fairer disposition, chortled a sunny 'Good morning' to Fred and George, and hugged Bill and Charlie in turn. Several pancakes, some pumpkin juice, heaps of scrambled eggs, and lots and lots of syrup later, the dishes were cleared, the luggage flooed, and the Weasley family clambered one after the other into the fireplace and landed in the parlour of Grimmauld Place.

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The place was just as she'd remembered it. Dark, slightly depressing, filled with overbearing adults, complete with shrieking paintings, a demented house elf, and a Grimm animigus running around. Oh wait… lack of Grimm animigus! Ginny glanced around the front parlour of Grimmauld Place. Why did the good things always have to go first? The rest of her family were spread about seeking Hermione and Harry out… Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt had decided it was a great idea to drop by and say hello, all in all, chaos was abound. Their trunks were floated to their rooms as the adults immediately began hushed talks about 'matters that didn't concern children', and the Weasley children either pranked, ate, joined in with 'matters that didn't concern children' (Bill), or in Ginny's case, remained standing in the parlour trying very hard not to one, smack up the Order for their exclusiveness, and two, break down crying because there was a definite lack of Sirius.

A firm hand on her shoulder brought her back to the world. "Remus!" she exclaimed, latching on to him in a bone-cracking hug.

"Hello Ginny. I thought you'd be here."

"You thought I'd be here in the parlour where we all arrived? Aaaaw Remus, that's so clever of you!" he laughed and shook his head.

"Still the biting wit, eh, Ginny?"

"Of course." she sniffed. "Without Sirius around, someone's got to keep up the snarkiness." She regretted it the moment she said it. Damn her mouth… it never ever consulted her brain before taking off. "Oh… oh Remus, it wasn't supposed to come out like that…" she mentally smacked herself. Remus heaved a huge sigh.

"It's okay Ginny. If any could joke about when Sirius was here, it was you." Ginny contemplated for a second.

"True… Damnation, I can't stop thinking that he's still is here."

"Ginny!" he said, feigning shock. "He hasn't left us! Deep down, he's still there." he explained as though to a smile child. She snorted.

"Making up for a lost childhood, Remus?" she asked. "The cotton candiness of all of the crap that the Order and my parents has laid on me about Sirius's death is starting to really make my brain hurt." True, Remus had just repeated to her exactly what all the Order had taken to telling her for the past year whenever she mentioned Sirius… deep down:psht: No kidding. There was nothing corporeal around to say he was still there. Remus laughed and steered her towards the staircase.

"You, Snarky One, are going to your room to unpack. Then you're going downstairs to join the rest of them in the den."

"Oh? And what do you suppose I'm going to do in the den with 'the rest of them'? Hmm? If it includes anything involving Hermione and how much I disappoint her with my :cough: apathy, I will take a vase and quickly acquaint her over-large head with the inside of it." Remus cocked his head to one side and quietly chuckled.

"No… the rest of them are playing a very spirited game of chess."

"Ah…" said Ginny. "Well then, I'll go do that." turning to leave. "Oh, and Remus, let's say… midnight and two thirds?" Remus grinned, really, he was still a very becoming bloke if he smiled and :grinned: more often.

"Midnight and two thirds." he affirmed. Nodding, Ginny climbed the stairs to her room to unpack. She laid all her books out in front of her and the letters than she had received from her friends over the week she spent back at The Burrow. She missed them already. They came from her three best friends: Jordan Knight, Nico Ciarniello, and Venice la Noble. She smiled at the memory of their train ride back to Platform 9¾… they, all three of them, had ambushed the trolley lady, sent her shrieking to the front of the train lambasting rabid Snorkebongs. Ginny smirked at the memory… three well placed charms and a hex later, the trolley lady couldn't see anything for the little demi-pixies tangling themselves in her hair and attacking her face with sparkle dust… really, overall it had produced rather tragic effects. Ginny doubted still, the probability of the trolley lady clean of sparkles. They were very pretty though! They were :_sparkly_:. The four of them had horded all the pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs before charming the trolley to wheel through the tiny corridors of the train at faster speeds than a Muggle car terrorizing students of all years and finally ramming into an unsuspecting Draco Malfoy.

They'd dissolved into laughter when they got safely back in their compartment. It had been a fun trip. Mmm… pumpkin pasties. Ginny suddenly felt hungry though breakfast had been less than an hour ago. Reasoning that she was a growing child of sixteen and needed constant nourishment, she finished unpacking and went downstairs to the kitchen to grab a scone or two.

It wasn't to say that Ginevra Weasley was plump by any lengths, but she had rather begun filling out over the last of the school year and a week into summer and plenty of Vitamin D from sun had given her a wonderful light bronze (something very different from her normal flawless ivory complexion)… riiiiight. True, Ginny's hair had retained its wonderful silkiness that very rarely took to redheads, and her hair really was red… not the fire-engine red that had haunted her as a child, but a deep auburn-mahogany red that fell halfway down her back and curled slightly at the bottom. Consensus, once she reached Hogwarts again, would place her as quite the looker. Her brown eyes were deep with the odd fleck of gold once in a while, and her full five foot five frame put her at the big 3.0 inches taller than her mom. Ginny boasted a very lovely figure, and damn it, if eating countless pumpkin pasties and the various home-baked products that Molly Weasley churned out contributed to that figure, then Ginny Weasley would continue eating them if the world crashed down around her.

So… Ginny stalked into the kitchen, grabbed several scones, chose the largest chocolate cookie she could find and settled at one end of the dining table facing the members of the Order who had seen her come in. Tonks was gawking quite visibly at the amount of food she had acquired.

"Wotcher, Gin. Hungry?"

"Ain't even the half of it Tonks. How've you been?" the pair exchanged several comments before they became aware of the silence around them. Looking up from her conversation, Ginny saw almost the entire Order scrutinizing her. Ah, how lovely… and there was the delightful Professor Snape glaring daggers at her down his large nose. Ginny was actually very fond of Snape. She found him quite amusing. "Ah…"

"Ginevra Weasley, you are disrupting a very important meeting here." her mom announced flatly. Her glare clearly said she wasn't welcome. Heaving a huge sigh and trying exceedingly hard not to roll her eyes, Ginny collected her food and walked towards the kitchen door with a tragic air. As she got there she spun about,

"If the Order were half-inclined to do _anything_ productive, it may want to ask the input of a certain Boy who is likely to save us all… then again, two years has proved the Order quite useless. Well… I do suppose we could figure things out for ourselves, us 'youngsters'. Merlin knows we'll probably need to. :Sigh: You lot enjoy yourselves. Oh, and excellent pastries, Mother, the biscuits could do with a little more chocolate though. You look into that if you've time on top of all this… productive and wonderful business. :Sniff: Ta!" she said, waving a free hand as she disappeared down the hall.

Had she delayed a little to see their reactions, Ginny would have found a very red Molly Weasley about to explode in a tirade (thank God for small miracles like laryngitis), a grinning Bill Weasley, a very amused Remus Lupin, a glittery-eyed Professor Dumbledore, and a quietly approving Mad-Eye Moody. Well, well, the youngest Weasley had some spunk. Asides from her mother and perhaps Snape who didn't condone any level of fun, the Order had decided then that they rather liked young Ginny Weasley. She could prove to be quite interesting… if Sirius had been there, he'd be laughing aloud.

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"Oi Ginners!"

"Halo, halo Fred."

"Whoa… much food?" he asked, reaching for a scone.

"Hey, hey! Hands off. I sacrificed my pride getting these. You want them, you go and get roasted by the Order." she snapped, swatting his hands away. Grinning, she took the cookie, rammed as much of it into her mouth as possible and proceeded to chew it like a cow.

"Ginny that's disgusting! Stop being a child." Hermione. Ginny's gaze averted. Hermione Granger. :Ugh: Smart girl, very smart: had an affinity for text books. Completely illiterate when it came to normal every day life as far as Ginny was concerned. She swallowed her bite of cookie and regarded her coolly. Really, the girl just asked for it!

"Well, halo Hermione." Ginny said pleasantly. "How have you been lately? My, my, don't you seem to be a hop, skip and jump away from pure bliss. Hmm..." she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "I do suppose you could go and make wonderful friends with Kreacher with that sunny disposition… oh but yes, I forgot! You're can't! Isn't it horrid when people judge you for invariable things like blood and _age_? Pity that. Is that why you resort to hogging Ron and Harry? No one else around to listen to your endless lecturing, eh? Well, do shut up, and don't talk to me unless you've something constructive to say." Okay, low blow. Very low blow, Ginny. If it weren't for her unrelenting annoyance at the girl's patronizing disposition that so reminded her of the Order, Ginny may have taken the comment as it was… she really was being disgusting with the cookie, but that was the bloody point wasn't it? The den had grown suddenly quiet as a startled looking Hermione was at lost for something to say. Good, thought Ginny. "So, Ron. Want to play me, or are you too scared that wittle Ginners might beat at your own game?" Ron snapped out of his shock as Testosterone Gear 1 clicked in.

"Oh, and I'm sure you've got a total other thing coming at you Ginny Weasley." he retorted in a voice that clearly said get-your-arse-here-and-play-me-or-die. Ginny happily plopped down with her scones and cookie and leaned in to the board. My, my, wasn't she on a roll today. She'd successfully pissed off everyone that she thoroughly disliked… namely, her mother and Hermione.

Fred and George exchanged glances and very painfully subdued a strong desire to high five each other… if they, as good, honourable young men, could not take a bite out of Hermione for her infallible idiocy, baby Ginners very well could!

The room immediately began to fill up with conversation again as Ron and Ginny went head to head, aware of nothing else but the chess board. Hermione, in all her petulance had got up and stalked towards the kitchen, intent on giving Mrs. Weasley a full report on Ginny's inexcusable behaviour, Fred and George burst out laughing the minute Hermione was out of earshot, and Charlie (joining the younger ones in a once in a blue moon stint to feel young again) pulled out his wand to charm the fire from the fireplace to cheer on Ron and Ginny at random. Quite forgotten in the midst of Ginny's outburst and the twins' antics was Harry Potter. In fact, Harry really had been bored out of his wits till she had come into the room looking so different from what he remembered a week ago and lashing at Hermione so uncharacteristically. Who on earth with this fireball who had taken over soft-spoken little Ginny Weasley? He was starring at her then… maybe not so little anymore he thought to himself looking at her unbelievable developments in the past week. Whatever happened to her, it really suited her much better, and Harry decided that she was quite brilliant.

So many decisions had been made about Ginny that day. She had amused, belittled, inspired, terrorized, humiliated, and uplifted quite a few people who had to do a double-take to make sure that it was indeed Ginny Weasley who was talking and not someone else. So… what on earth had happened to Ginny?... in one week no less.

_Ginevra. _

_Ginny stirred… someone had called her name…_

_Several moments of silence passed. Oh, bloody wind. _

_Ginevra…_

Okay_, she definitely hadn't imagined it that time. Ginny sat up in bed and glanced warily around her bedroom. It was pitch black and it really didn't sit well with her that she was hearing voices in the middle of the night calling her name._

_Ginevra! _

_She snapped her head to the wall next to her. Oh merciful Merlin, please don't tell her that the _wall _was talking to her. Ginny peered closely at it… _wait a minute_. The wall was blurred a little. Since when were walls blurred! She reached out with a hand and tentatively prodded the spot and yelped in surprise when her finger went clean through it. Argh! Permeable walls! Her finger still inside the wall, she sat stunned not knowing what to do until she felt a huge tug and found herself sprawling through the blurry spot in her wall and landing on the other side… on very hard stone. _

_Where in the name of Merlin, Morgana, and Maeve was she! Ginny glanced around at the white palace that she had plopped so unceremoniously into… in nothing but Bill's old oversized t-shirt no less. She realized uncomfortably that she wasn't alone. She just had to have that extra sixth or seventh sense that told her that someone was watching her closely. Ginny turned and her jaw dropped._

_Standing before her in all his wonderful masculine glory was possibly the most beautiful human being she had ever seen… well, was he human? She had no idea, but damn, if he was, she wouldn't mind getting a date to Hogsmeade with this bloke. Apparently her thoughts weren't exactly quiet, either that or he could read them… the man… uh… angelic being… looked at her with raised eyebrows (she decided then and there that he would be the only one _ever _to be allowed to raise eyebrows at her)._

_"Ginevra."_

_"Yes…?"_

_"Welcome to Lohengrin."_

_"Uh… thank you." she said, unsurely. "Is… is there a reason why I'm here?" The bloke raised his eyebrows again._

_"Well, one would suppose." Ooooooh, so the guy wanted to be sarcastic, eh? Okay. Ginny knew this game, deeply buried though it was._

_"All right then. You seem to know what's going on around here. Enlighten me, oh ethereal being." she snapped. If this bloke, gorgeous as he was, wanted to pry her out of bed at ungodly hours just to make her feel stupid, he had another thing coming at him. Well… he did, if he hadn't smiled so dazzlingly and reduced Ginny to a sizeable blob of goo on the floor. Damn it, why did he have to smile? _

_"Oh ho! She has a temper!" he crowed laughingly. "I thoroughly approve. So, shall we get started?" It was more a statement than a question. "You are here, in Lohengrin, land of the Seraphim. We oversee all things, Magical; Non-Magical, Spiritual, Scientific… we take in stride everything that lives in on earth. We make no distinction between different humans. To us…" and at this he grinned, "…you are all rather inferior." Ginny scowled… Okay, if he wanted to pry her out of bed at ungodly hours to tell her that she was _inferior_ he may find that he had another thing coming at him. _

_"Right. So what on earth, you pompous Lo-en-gryn git, do you WANT WITH ME!" she thundered. The Seraph sniffed and looked her up and down._

_"You will either speak to me with respect, or you will not speak at all." he stated rather coldly. Well now, that was rather unfair as he didn't seem to have a problem with insulting her freely. "You are here because one of your people has decided to wreak havoc amongst all humans and we, the Divine, have decided to intervene because it has decidedly become out of hand."_

_"So, you guys are concerned with Tom? Well then, if you're so all powerful, why can't you just get rid of him:Snap: It'd make things a lot easier for the rest of us. Plus, if you wanted someone who can speak with authority on how to kill Tom you might want to get in contact with a certain Harry Potter. Maybe you've heard of him in all your undying wisdom? He and not I, is responsible for everything Tom-related. I'm just his best friend's younger sister." _

_"Yes, well in that case, we could just get rid of all humans collectively and then we wouldn't have to worry about anything, now would we? Not. Listen here girl. You are here because Harry Potter is only one boy against a whole world of evil. You are here because my superiors, the Lord only knows why, chose you to help him. And you are here because until this is over and your… Tom Riddle, is gone, I am to oversee your progress." he said. "So you will stop this incessant immaturity and listen when I am speaking to you. You are charged with the responsibility of guiding Harry Potter. You will remain here, in Lohengrin to learn what you need to know and then you will return to earth." he said beginning to stride down the length of the huge hall. "My name is Arion. I will be with you at all times from now until you complete your task. We will begin with the history."_

_So Ginny stayed in Lohengrin unaware of the days that passed by which translated to nothing in her world. She studied under Arion learning the history of Lord Voldemort whom she insisted on calling by the Muggle name that so irked him. She saw in recorded memory the first war, the rise to power of Dumbledore, the unity of Lily and James Potter, their death, Voldemort's first fall, the birth and life of Harry Potter… and she saw Sirius die. Again. She learnt of the displacement of the heavens with the amount of power that Tom had amassed. The amount of pure evil that had controlled… and then she met Tom._

_Well, she met the good side of Tom who had already died and gone to Heaven. Arion had left her for a good long while to converse with him and Ginny had discovered that she could not hate this Tom, the Tom that lived in Heaven and watched his other side rage evil throughout the world. And she listened to Tom when he told her one thing in all the sorrow he possessed. "If no one can stop me, I know I can. Remember me as I am now, and remember that if I can die, then so can he." Then he just _left

_Tom Riddle left a perplexed Ginny that day. He seemed so heartbroken. Well… so would she if she had to look down from the heavens at her evil self killing everything and not be able to do anything about it. Still… This could easily have gone straight to Harry, why her? When Arion came to fetch her she was still trying to understand what he wanted her to do. Sure, she knew that she would somehow help Harry, though Arion had infuriatingly refused to tell her how, and now she had met the essence of good Tom Riddle and all he told her was that he could die. Excellent! What headway they've made!_

_ Well… it did mean that Voldemort could be killed. That was always good to know._

_Arion kept Ginny there for some time. He taught her how the art enchantment (something that didn't show up on the OWL or NEWT curriculum), how to control and strengthen her power… and then very suddenly, he had told her that she was going home_

_"What! But I've learned next nothing!" she cried when he told her… really, she had gotten attached to the place. "You've basically told me a very informative story and reviewed what I've already learnt at school… which, thank you very much, I had quite a hand on already." Arion looked at her placidly… damn him and his everlasting calmness._

_"You, my dear, are getting ahead of yourself. _You _seem to think that it's all done by a wand. You're wrong. The oldest magic took no wand. The greatest magic takes no wand. You don't see God waving around a wand do you?" Damn. Rhetorical question. Did God even do magic? Didn't he just will things happen and they do? "Look at yourself, Ginevra. You have grown more here than you have in your life combined. You have the advantage that you know the past in all its facets and possibilities." Ginny contemplated this… well, it had _felt _like she spent a good lifetime there… She hadn't really noticed any change. Did she feel any different? A mirror appeared in front of her suddenly… well then; she hadn't seen one of those in a while. Peering at herself in it, she recognized seeeeeeveral changes. She supposed she should have studied any signs of wisdom growing off of her but… where on earth did that chest come from! And her features, they were so… defined. "Like what you see?" asked a slightly snide Arion. "To be sure, you're… acquired beauty will come in handy some time." Ginny looked at him stupidly. "Look here. You've developed an attitude and a stance here that you may not understand but everyone else will. To them you will have suddenly procured an unwavering confidence and arrogance. You will appear to them as a young woman from the girl you were… in a night. Lohengrin gives you your best and brings out your worse. You will return to your world feeling empowered, feeling that the world has wronged no one but you. It is the Lohengrin Complex." He paused for a while. "I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you to expect to make mistakes. For now, you need to snap out of this because you're mother will be hammering on your door any moment to wake you up. Your main purpose here was to remember what has happened before. The rest of your training will happen in your world."_

_And with that, Ginny had no time to get her word in before she woke up abruptly in her own bed… that ruddy sun was leaking through her shutters again. She felt disoriented for a moment. What in bleeding Morgana happened? Had it been a dream? What day was it? Why had no one noticed she was missing? A sudden THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP made her almost crash through the ceiling. She cautiously opened the door to her room to find her mum glowering at her. In less than thirty seconds, she learned that it was in fact the morning after her little visit to Lohengrin, she had not been missed and… she had :_changed

_Observing herself in the shower, Ginny discovered that she had kept her womanly physique. Well, well, well… so it hadn't been a dream after all. To her great discomfort, though, she had also discovered a large tattoo winding from her lower back up to the space between her shoulder blades. In the mirror she could make out two words… _**Auxilium** **Memoria**_ Excellent… the Seraphim had bloody branded her. Oooooh… if she ever saw Arion again she have go at him._

_Blinking once or twice, she realized the exact weight of what had been placed on her shoulders… and there was more training to come:Groan: Lohengrin had given her the backbone and biting wit that she always hid from everyone but her closest friends. It had augmented her confidence and ugh… given her rather abrupt and unmanageable assets. _

_That morning, a day after coming back from Hogwarts at the end of her fifth year and a night after a dreamt lifetime, Ginny Weasley walked down to the kitchen with something different in her step. She held such fluidity and was that… anger in her eyes? How about that… that posture, and that taut 'Halo' sounded quite gritty. Well, do give me a break, she thought. She wondered how many of them could have all the information that she did and keep silent about it. And what on earth was she supposed to do with all of it? Guide Harry? Well, that was vague wasn't it? Knitting her eyebrows she sat at the breakfast table thoroughly confused._

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"HAAH!", Ginny's Queen lashed out to swipe Ron's king off the board. She grinned and reached over to pat him tenderly on the back. "It's okay Ron… We all get soft… it comes with the old age." she explained smiling. Ron scowled. He had lost a game of chess to his baby sister. How was that possible! He demanded a rematch to a laughing Ginny who rose from her seat to get more food from the kitchen. "Keep on roaring, Ron. I suppose if you go at it long enough, your brains will match your volume."

Still chuckling, she wandered into the kitchen. Hmm… more scones… However, something distracted her as she stopped short in the doorway of the kitchen, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. There was an addition at the kitchen table to the Order. A very familiar addition.

"Ah, Miss. Weasley!" said Dumbledore happily. "No time like the present for introductions. This is Professor **Caelestis**, he will be joining the staff at Hogwarts this year. He'll be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts." he said. "Would you like to say hello? Or how about you go and fetch Harry and the rest? I'm sure they'd like to meet their new professor." The headmaster rattled on for a bit but Ginny heard none of it. She looked at this 'professor' and saw an all too familiar smirk. A smirk that she had coped with for an immeasurable amount of time in a far away place.

"…Ginny? Openly gawking at your new professor may prove not be very tactful… handsome bloke though he is.", remarked Dumbledore. Ginny snapped out of her reverie flushing a wonderful red.

"Ah yes, Professor." She stepped forward and offered a, "Nice to meet you Professor… Caelestsis. I'll go and get Harry and the others now." Ginny swivelled on her spot and marched out of the kitchen. Behind her, she heard a soft deep laugh.

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Notes:

**Halo**: Halo… is my way of saying "hello", and is pronounced ha-lo. Not hay-lo. I just don't like spelling it as 'hallo'. It looks too… yellow… don't ask.

**Cookie**: So there's been an age long consensus that the British say 'biscuit'. Wrong. I'm quite attached to the British myself and have many British friends whom all say cookie. They describe it very much the way North Americans do… cookies have a little more substance to them. They're chunky, filling… etc. Biscuits are the thin decorous things that you have with tea. Not substantial. Long live cookies.

**Merlin, Morgana, and Maeve**: Okay… wizard equivalent of the saying 'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph'. Merlin is, of course, a legendary wizard. Morgana is a witch… the supposed half-sister of King Arthur… had a few run-ins with Merlin herself. I'm quite fond of Morgana. I don't hold to the idea that she was an evil psychopath trying to kill her brother… if she did, did she really have to guard his body in the afterlife in her very own magical kingdom of Avonlea? Yeah… didn't think so. Maeve, also know as Mabd, was the Queen of the Faeries at one point. Key figures in Magic.

**Lohengrin**: Stolen from Wagner's opera The Ring of the Nibelung… I was at loss for ideas… I needed a fantastical sounding name. Lohengrin offered itself. :Grin:

**Arion**: Okay… it's not Orion, not Arian… none of that. I had a hard enough time trying to think up of a name without resorting to Tolkein's Elvish names… bless that man, he made up really beautiful names. He's a Seraph come to keep an eye on things. Does Dumbledore know his true nature? Hmm… we'll see. Oh! I also thought that Arion would look something like this Jonathan Bennett… (thoroughly and mind bogglingly gorgeous.) Look him up on imdb (. Com) Take him; add a white linen toga-like thing and an ethereal demeanour, and you have Arion. Thank you, thank you… I'm a genius. He's beautiful. :Sigh:

**Caelestis**: Caelestis is the latin word for 'heaven dweller'. I thought it'd be appropriate and slightly more subtle than something like Professor Angel (Angelus in Latin).

**Seraphim**: Plural form of Seraph. Highest order of angel before the ultimate 'Archangel'. Rest assured, I won't be getting into any religious debates in this fic.

**Auxilium** **Memoria: Latin for 'support memory'. Literally. This will come into play much later on… for now, it's a pretty silver and gold ambigram tattoo on her back… we'll find in later chapters that this tattoo is only visible to certain people. **

**Harry**: His character has not been developed yet! He isn't just a bumbling, silent teenaged boy who likes looking at girls. :Grin:

I know the plot is currently running at full pace… I wanted to get a few basics down pat… why is Ginny suddenly so snarky? Why has she gone from girl to beautiful woman in a week… all that good stuff. Oh! And for the purposes of this fic… you may have realized Dumbledore doesn't die (at least not in Rowling's context). I'm rather attached the kooky old man myself.

If any of you would like to give me advice on a one on one basis, I'm perfectly open for that. Feel free to have a go at me. My email is in my profile. Hope you enjoyed reading!

**Snippet from Chapter Three**:

"Late, Remus? Well, well, well that isn't like you –" she spun around and found herself staring at someone who was decidedly _not _Remus.

Arion stood before her clothed in t-shirt and shorts. :ack: Her eyes bugged a little. Damn it, he just had to be so gorgeous. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, annoyed to always be caught off guard around him. "I have to _meet_ someone." she said, inviting him to leave. Raising an eyebrow (Ginny bristled at this… still, he was the only one who could raise an eyebrow at her), he gestured to the cocoa and food.

"Anyone significant?"

"A good friend."

"Oh, so he'll understand if I joined you. You know, to get to know my new 'student'." He said, smirking.

"No, he would tell you to leave if I said you were bothering me."

"Am I bothering you Ginevra?" he said with a hurt air. "And all I wanted to do was to mingle with the commoners!" Ginny snarled.

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Like it? Eh:Grin:

PT


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (haah… yes I do… and his alter-ego Professor Caelestis). I also ooooooown (I love this word!) Venice, Jordan, and Nico. :Grin:

**Author's Note**: This is a short chapter. I just needed to confront Arion a tad and introduce la Black Orb. :grin:.

**CHAPTER THREE WITH A FEW MINOR ADJUSTMENTS**… it wasn't well edited last time, I think this version rolls along a little smoother.

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Chapter Three: Discoveries

At forty past midnight Ginny slipped out of bed and threw on a housecoat. The day had been a long, confusing, strenuous one. She wasn't even going to begin thinking about why the hell Arion had turned up at number 12 Grimmauld Place. Still, she had made Remus promise to meet her at their signature 'twelve and two thirds': the time that she, Remus, and Sirius had always originally met at back in the day. It was to become increasingly difficult to make this vigil now that Arion had moved into the house and was undoubtedly stalking her. :Sniff: She had yet to ask him what the hell was going on and maybe throw a few hexes in there along the way… difficult though, as every occupant in the house had taken a great liking to him. 'Mum included', she thought, slightly sickened. If Remus was also a fan, she would have to resort to drastic measures.

The most perturbing of the lot; however, had been Harry. He'd walked into the room behind Charlie, Ron, and the twins who had bungled in and shook Arion's hand in turn, and just stared at him. Something about Arion just made people _like _him apparently. Harry had quietly scrutinized him from the back of the kitchen before taking his hand in a firm grip while Ginny looked on with not a little horror. Things had taken a rather sharp hike on the perplexometer.

She remained in the kitchen to listen in on Dumbledore's welcoming speech. It went something along the lines of… They were privileged and honoured to be acquainted with Professor Caelestis who was a fully qualified auror :blah: who had recently moved from Rome to Britain :blah blah: and had a good eye on the Death Eater movements there :blaaaaah:. He would be teaching Defence at Hogwarts and offered valuable services to the Order as well as the safety of the students :_blah?_:. Harry, who normally took most of what Dumbledore said with a grain of salt (who could blame him after Sirius's death and the prophecy?) had surprisingly approved of Arion without a second thought.

Ginny found this most unsettling as it had taken her a good long time to get used to him in Lohengrin, albeit, he acted as though very large and very prickly cactus had worked its way up you-know-where. Which is why while Harry had exchanged polite but warm hellos, she had stood there trying very hard not to gape/gasp/splutter/cry/yell. What could she do? Confront him in front of the entire Order? She didn't even know if Dumbledore knew the truth about Arion though she had a fairly good idea.

These thoughts bombarded her as she made her way down to the back Drawing Room, a room that no one really knew about as it was so far out of the way. She crept down the stairs and behind the kitchen corridor. A side panel in the wall shifted to allow her into the servants' corridors of the house. The back Drawing Room was possibly an old retreat for the servants of the Black household… In any case, it was private, safe, and offered great access to the House Elfs' kitchen. The room was surprisingly deserted. Normally Remus would have been there already, stoking a fire in the fireplace while hot mugs of hot cocoa sat on the little coffee table. Well… it wouldn't hurt to return the favour she thought as she moved about to do the same. She had just returned from the Kitchen with two steaming cups of cocoa and a platter of pastries when she heard the door click open quietly and smiled.

"Late, Remus? Well, well, well that isn't like you –" she spun around and found herself staring at someone who was decidedly _not _Remus.

Arion stood before her clothed in t-shirt and shorts. :gah: Her eyes bugged a little and she looked away before catching a small smirk flit across his face. Damn it, he just had to be so gorgeous. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, annoyed to be surprised. "I have to meet someone." she said, eyeing the door. _Sweet Merlin, Remus better get here soon_. Raising an eyebrow (Ginny bristled at this… still, he was the only one who could raise an eyebrow at her), he gestured to the cocoa and food.

"Anyone significant?"

"A good friend."

"Oh, so he'll understand if I joined you. You know, to get to know my new 'student'." He said, smirking.

"No, he would tell you to leave if I said you were bothering me."

"Am I bothering you Ginevra?" he said with a hurt air. "And all I wanted to do was to mingle with the commoners!"

"Arion, leave." she sighed. "I don't even know what you're doing here! You can't really think you can just walk into all the aspects of my life without telling me about it, can you?" she asked.

"I suspect you have some questions." He said nonchalantly, changing the subject completely.

"Yes, naturally I do. But they're nothing we can't talk about later, so if you will… I have someone coming to meet me very soon… please." She gestured towards the door.

"He won't be along for some time."

"And I'm sure you know exactly who it is I'm meeting?" she insinuated, an edge creeping into her voice.

"Of course I do." Ginny scowled.

"Arion just leave!" she snapped. He contemplated her for a moment before striding up to her so closely there was hardly an inch between them. Ginny swallowed a tiny gasp and gazed staunchly back at him. She'd have to be cursed thrice over before she let him of all people see her unnerved… again.

"Keep in mind that while I come here mortal like every other person here, I'm still Seraph no matter what you like to think. You might not speak to me as a teacher, fine, but you will speak to me sometime, Ginevra." She sniffed. "Because you need me here. With you. You know it. And when you finally decide that your stubbornness is going to be our death, you'll come to me, and I'll be sure to roll out the welcoming wagon as warmly as you have." Ooooh, he smelled nice. Mentally smacking herself, she snapped out of her stupor.

"Of course." she said, staccato.

Arion looked her once over, a rather searing gaze and Ginny immediately felt belittled. "I'll see you, Ginevra." And with that, Arion left Ginny standing there suddenly lacking the warmth that he gave off. He smelled… he smelled like everything between summer dew and the Forbidden forest. Everything was so natural, damn it… the Forbidden Forest wasn't supposed to smell _sexy_!

"Argh!" Ginny willed her mind to clear. _Where on earth was Remus?_

Growing wearing, she left the Drawing Room to check up on the Order in the kitchen. As it were, the House Elf corridors were completely invisible to the unsuspecting magical or Muggle eye making it very convenient for Ginny to listen in and watch their conversation hardly two meters away from them. _Ah, and there was Remus._ Ginny frowned, he seemed angry. It wasn't that Remus was never angry, he was simply very subdued. The man had an excellent capacity of hiding emotions. _So did Sirius._ Ginny sighed.

She was about to creep back to the Drawing Room when a very harsh string of words caught her attention. :Whoa: That couldn't be Remus standing, glaring at the entire Order… Arion not included, with rather animalistic glimmer in his eyes.

"What are you trying to do? The entire lot of you!" came a growl, "Do you know what Sirius thought of this? He. Hated. It. Do you not understand?" he continued, voice hiking. "Harry is one boy. That's one boy against legions upon legions of evil. I know, I've seen it. Sirius saw it. The same evil that makes Harry half the person he ought to be. I've watched him every day since he's returned from Hogwarts. I don't know how the rest of you miss it, but he's _not happy_. There's been a whole lot of effort going on trying to get him to open up, eat more, laugh, prepare for the inevitable. Is that what you think he needs?", Remus asked, words laced with irony. "You think he'll be able to do it forever. :Haah:" he chuckled grimly. "I want you all to back off of him. He must have the summer off to recuperate, no Molly - " he said, cutting the latter off, "He hasn't gotten a day's worth of rest whatsoever. He's done nothing but stress. Have any of you ever considered the fact that he's _never said 'no'_? Think about that. If I asked you to give up your life to fight a war that you had no choice to be part of, would you do it?" He stood, "I'm going to bed now. The rest of you can mull over this all you want, I don't care. But you will give him the next month and a half off… I want to see results." And with that, Remus stalked out of the kitchen. Ginny scrambled back to the Drawing Room and threw herself into one of the couches just as the other door to the room opened. _Think fast, Gin._

"Halo there, Remus. Hot chocolate? Scone?" she asked. "Where've you been?"

"Fight a losing battle with a bunch of idiots."

"The Order?"

"The very same."

"Well?"

"If Sirius were here, it'd be different." Ginny stiffened, _Sirius_.

"Yes, yes it would be." Considering for a moment, Ginny turned to Remus, "Remus? Do you think, that maybe we should just call it a night? I've had a long day, you've had a long day." Remus nodded.

"Fine. We'll do tomorrow night then. Get a bit of sleep in. I feel horrid." He had stood to go to his room when Ginny jumped up smacking a hand to her head.

"Oh! Remus, wait! I almost forgot!" Ginny reached into the pocket of her house coat and drew out some balled up socks. Remus looked at the socks and Ginny in turn before taking it. "Don't ask me, I haven't the slightest clue what it is, but I found it last night while I was packing." Remus regarded the socks warily before cautiously unwrapping it. The glassy ball fell out. In soft light of the fire, Ginny and Remus could both make out that the orb was black due to what looked like wisps of smoke floating about inside it. Light still jarred when it passed through the object. They both stood there observing the little ball. It was rather small but quite heavy.

"I don't suppose you know when you came in possession of it?" asked Remus, finally. Ginny shook her head… well she definitely didn't have it when she was packing her things on the second to last day of Hogwarts. She hadn't checked over her things when she'd gotten back to The Burrow. Actually, she had quite frankly tipped the trunk on its side and spilled all of its contents into her wardrobe quite unceremoniously… She hadn't planned on seeing the things again until the start of the next school year.

Somewhere a grandfather clocked chimed one o'clock in the morning. Remus had his wand out muttering something that Ginny couldn't hear. Ginny quietly looked on, she hadn't planned to figure the thing out by herself by any means, understanding the thing at one in the morning was slightly painful but it just nagged at her that she could swear that it looked familiar somehow.

Finally, Remus handed it back to her… "Well, if you want my opinion, I would keep it under a tight watch. Note any changes in its state." he offered. Ginny nodded and began wrapping it up in the socks again when Remus caught one in his hand and looked it over. "I don't suppose these are yours?" he asked, fingering the soft material.

"No… they're far too big. I just found the thing inside them." Remus looked pensive for a moment.

"These are familiar."

"The socks?"

"Yes." He closed his eyes as if to probe his memory. "Pity that… I was hoping to get in a good night's sleep at some point. Now, this will nag at me until I end up remembering. Superb." Remus chuckled.

"Well, I'll just keep an eye on it, then?" asked Ginny. "If you remember who's they are, you'll tell me?"

"Yes, yes, of course."

"Well then…" she paused, this could be prime time to ask a very important question. "So, how about we finish this hot cocoa and then really head up to bed? Oh, by the by, that new teacher… Caelestis…"

"Ah yes… him." Ginny rejoiced internally… answers, excellent. "He's a peculiar one. Professor Dumbledore refuses to tell me where he came from so he probably just erupted from the heavens." Ginny smiled softly at how close to the truth this was. "I think he's a genuine article though. Not many aurors out there today are of any use. Professor Dumbledore may be spot on with this one."

"Well, I suppose he's a trustworthy guy then?"

"I don't think he's harmful. He isn't saying something, but whenever he does, it won't be something horrid." Remus grinned at Ginny, "Animalistic instinct." he said by means of an explanation. Ginny heaved a huge sigh. Well… if someone like Remus trusted Arion…

"All right then. So I won't grill the poor fellow. He seems a bit young to be a professor though."

"Are you saying that I'm old?" Remus shot back.

"_No_, I'm saying that he's ungodly young." True, Arion didn't look a day over twenty five.

"He's twenty four." Remus said, confirming her suspicions. "I'd say he was a decent bloke. Give him a try; if he's rubbish at teaching Defence, you've got a tutor here at your disposal." Ginny grinned. The two of them drained the last of their hot cocoa before putting the fire out. Remus shuffled towards the door and held it open for her.

"Ah, so chivalry's not quite dead in Britain yet?" Ginny teased.

"Of course not, you imp. Now, off to bed with you." Remus ruffled her hair affectionately. This was why she loved Remus and Sirius so much. They knew where the line was, they just knew when to be affectionate. Ginny grinned and hugged him goodnight before traipsing down the corridor towards the stairs.

Remus watched her retreating figure and heaved a sigh. She had grown into such a lovely young woman. It really wasn't fair, this blasted war. Ginny and Harry… Ron and Hermione, all of them… they would never have a normal childhood. He heaved a huge sigh… not that he did by any lengths. Somehow, though, deep inside, Remus couldn't help but feel that these young men and women wouldn't ever want to be normal. They took whatever came at them as if it were perfectly natural. If they weren't the answer to this growing madness, he didn't know what was.

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Notes:

**Arion**: Is he evil? Is he good? Why's he being so shady? Why's he rubbing Ginny the wrong way? Does he _like_ Ginny? How do you hope for Ginny to open up to a teacher figure? Eh? EH? … lol that's a funny joke… really. Let's read and find out Arion's true nature. I'll tell you this though, I like the guy.

**Socks**: Fluffy, thick, large socks… who on earth could those belong to? Not like the description has really narrowed down the search field… Trust me, it belongs to someone who's very much in this fic and we'll be hearing from him quite frequently.

**Remus**: After Sirius, Remus may be considered his lawful guardian and he's worried for Harry. The boy is caught up in figuring out how to save the world while living a life… can you blame him? The Order isn't helping either.

That was a rather short and maybe confusing chapter. I know Arion is being an ass, so is Ginny, in fact. She's being very difficult, waging a bloody war over nothing. She has mixed feelings over Arion. She doesn't know whether or not to trust him… give her some time. Once Hogwarts gets back, it'll all fall into place. Summer is always a little here and there.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (haah… yes I do… and his alter-ego Professor Caelestis). I also ooooooown (I love this word!) Venice, Jordan, and Nico. :Grin:

**Author's Note**: School's back in session. I'm a hop, skip and jump away from pure bliss, can't you tell? I apologize for the last chapter being much less enjoyable than hoped for. I really did struggle with it. I couldn't quite put my finger on what I'd like Arion and Ginny's relationship to be. I've got it figured out now… I'm not going to go back and change what I've written again. Instead… some developments will be made come Hogwarts time. I wrote the ending to the fic already:grin:… now I just have to fill in the middle. Would it appease you if I said that I find the ending rather likable:grin: Hogwarts might not be along for another two chapters… I expect this fic will be quite long. I think you'll find the Hogwarts school year very enjoyable though… you have yet to meet Nico C. He is possibly everything I want in a guy… which is of course nonexistent, so I had to _create_ him instead. Oh how very, very sad. By the by, Arion is a very versatile character. Please keep that in mind. Versatile. :grin: Okay… on with the story. I hope you like this chapter.

**BIG SHOUT TO Hnz786: I got a message for you in the Notes later on… Here's Harry for you in this chapter! Sorry about his late debut!**

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Chapter 4: Just Harry

Drip. Drip. Drip. Ginny scrunched her brow… _blasted dripping_. It couldn't possibly be time to wake up already. Through her eyelids, she could sense the telltale lightness around her… :_Damn_: It really was time to get up. Groaning, Ginny threw her covers off and sat up in bed. The thing about Ginny is there's no real transition between waking up and getting up. It all just happens in a swift motion… sleeping to sitting. So there she was, sitting up in bed, blinking to adjust to the newly sunlit room. The calendar on her far wall read something like July 16th, 2005. _(Author's_ _Note: I know it's supposed to be 1996… do I care much? Negatory. I think it's easier for everyone to relate to something happening in the now… year 2005 is the closest I can get it without trespassing on the untold.)_

She shook off the remaining tendrils of sleep… a month and a half till Hogwarts:excellent:. Somewhere downstairs, Molly Weasley was already banging pots and pans, undoubtedly making breakfast somewhere in along with all the noise. Ginny looked at the little black ball that she'd set up on the little table next to her bed; she'd gotten into the habit of having it be the last she saw before she fell asleep and the first thing she saw when she woke up. Black glass balls don't just show up for decorous purposes, she was sure. However, as always, the smoke in it just swirled around, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

A spectacularly loud, "OI!" made her jump and she looked towards the ceiling on the other side of which her brother and a certain Harry Potter slept. "RON!" – There ya go… the oaf went and did something else stupid.

"HAAAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!" :_Shite_:. Ginny just about bashed her head into the wall. It was Harry's birthday. How on earth did she manage to forget? It was all Ron and the twins could talk about for the past week. She'd even been included in some celebration preparations, not that she thought Harry would particularly like the part which involved Bat Jelly capsules exploding in his face, but… Still, it was his birthday. She hadn't prepared anything, she had no idea what was going on… and she had no gift. Curses flew through her head.

Breakfast, needless to say, was a horrid affair for her. Everyone was walking around shooting meaningful glances at each other as if they all had a huge thing going. Ginny knew for a fact that they'd stashed a pile of gifts somewhere… even Bill and Charlie had mustered something up for him. Ginny was, in fact, the only giftless one. Lovely.

Remus showed up near noon and asked for Ginny to go check up on something with him. Read: Urgent talking needed! She excused herself from the Quidditch discussion she'd been having with Bill and Charlie and met a very nervous looking Remus in the front hall.

"You look a bit jumpy Remus. Everything all right?" To her utmost surprise, as Remus was normally a very composed, very dignified person, he snorted and :giggled:. Yes, giggled. Well… a very manly giggle, but a giggle nonetheless. "Oookay."

"It's Harry's birthday." She immediately scowled.

"Yes, I know that. And don't rub it in Remus, I'm sure one of those half-wits have gotten around to telling you that I'd completely forgotten about it. I'll be sitting at dinner tonight trying very hard to not mourn the relationship that crashed before it started." she said with a groan. To her further dismay, a very slyly grinning Remus proceeded to steer her towards the back Drawing Room promising her something wonderful.

"You'll love it. I promise. It's a dream come true. You'll love it!" he crowed.

"…I'm going to hate it aren't I?" she asked warily while Remus hummed lightly, apparently very delighted with himself.

"You're going to love it!"

Finally, they reached the little door to the right of the House Elf corridor and he pushed it open with a soft hand. Then, with a very un-soft hand, he shoved Ginny inside, waved a very cheery goodbye, banged the door shut and an acute :click: was heard followed by a muttering of incantations, and Ginny found herself alone in the back Drawing Room. Well… alone included a green-eyed boy with messy black hair and a slightly perturbed expression.

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Remus Lupin was a man of very few words. He normally chose to listen and think as opposed to pull pranks… that was Sirius's and James's job. However, when he woke up that morning and realized that it was his best friend's son's birthday he thought he'd do something rather reckless but quite necessary. He was going to get this Ginny-Harry nuisance out of the way.

Of course, she hid it very well… having liked the boy for a good long while. He reckoned that it killed her regularly to have Harry be her brother's best friend and not pay any attention to her. It seemed so natural to Remus for the two of them to be something. Of course, Ginny was very much her own person. Merlin knew what happened to her between Hogwarts at Grimmauld Place, she most definitely wasn't the girl he and Sirius had met two years prior. She was very determined, very snarky and definitely very beautiful.

Harry, on the other hand, had tried keeping his eyes off her for the two they'd been there and was successful not at all! True, he contained himself very well, never spoke of her, stole glances during dinnertime and hardly said a word beyond "Pass the gravy." but Remus noticed his subtleties and decided that it was high time the two of them got it out.

Well, it would have all worked out quite nicely if neither teenagers had any pride. Unfortunately, Ginny had more pride than patience, and Harry didn't enjoy confined spaces. So…

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Harry just stared at her. It was beginning to get annoying, truthfully. Yes, she liked him… but that'd started well before her first year, and she was about to begin sixth year, one would think that her crush would be on a slight decline. Still, he stared at her. He was probably trying to think of something to say that wouldn't 1. be awkward, 2. set off her temper, and 3. cause one, two, several or all of her brothers to go after him with their wands drawn. Either way, it was beginning to gnaw at her. She was not some little girl with heart eyes for the Boy-Who-Lived, and she most certainly wasn't about to let him think that. Enter Snarky Ginny.

"So… they trained you well, didn't they?" Harry's head snapped up from its position: nodding towards the ground.

"Huh?"

She snorted with mock delight, "Well! He's intelligent too! My, my what doesn't the boy do?" remarked Ginny. The theory was to get all the rounds out now, explanations could come later. Harry's face reddened a bit, but his trademark defiance surfaced as well. However, true to chivalrous Britain, he maintained a very polite disposition.

"Have you any idea why Remus locked us in here?" he asked quietly.

"Rest assured, Harry, if I knew I wouldn't have let it happen and never presented myself as a victim."

"Victim!" he balked. "What did you think? I've taken cannibalism and want to eat you? Or maybe practice some live-target hexing? Because, you know, things get so dull around here sometimes!"

"Well, it's good that you can come up with your own answers, isn't it?" she noted with a jaunty air, "Not like the Order does much of it. They do a wonderful job making one feel safe, don't they?" This somewhat subdued Harry as he was no fan of them himself, Arion and Remus aside.

"Yes, indeed."

"Mmm."

"Mmm?"

"Mmm, indeed." She paused… "Well, as much as this has been _fascinating_, I'm sure Fred and George are just about tearing the house down looking for me, so if you don't mind too much, I'll just be leaving." Ginny stood and tested the door, who in good Merlin's name knew what Remus had done, he had quite ripped apart all of Ginny's previous inclinations towards him. Very despairingly, she found that it was impossible to open and pivoted on the spot. "We'll just have to find another way out of here, now won't we?" She strode to the door on the far side of the room and was found wanting. There were no other doors to be seen and she was quickly losing her reserve of patience.

Harry had taken a seat on one of the plush couches and was studying her with a steady gaze. _Fine, be that way_. Unable to really do anything Ginny picked a seat across from his and sat down to return the favour. It gave her an excellent excuse to have a good look at him away from the attention of the rest of the household.

He had grown over the weeks at Grimmauld Place, his hair was a little longer than normal, no less messy, reaching just to his shoulders. It was still black as night and messy in a careless and abominably sexy way: the type of hair that no doubt, Lavender, Parvati and probably the rest of Hogwarts' female population would love to run their hands through. Brown – black – brown… BLACK HAIR. _Oooooh._ Ginny found herself astounded when her mind flitted to someone definitely _not_ Harry when she thought of hair. Blinking back her surprise she focused back on Harry. Eyes. They were a brilliant green that used to sparkle when he was in first and second year. Ginny had noticed with growing despair that their glimmer had dulled throughout fifth year and looked dead and hard in his sixth. It was also disconcerting to see a hint of coldness in his eyes. Normally warm and safe, Ginny could no longer look at him and see good through and through. She felt an overwhelming urge to gather Harry in her arms and force into him the fact that there was still love in the world… most unfortunately, that would likely result in Harry thinking her a psychopath, so she restrained herself and resolved to sit there lost in his emerald eyes.

Emerald eyes, which at that point in time, were thinking some very similar thoughts about her. Maybe Ginny didn't know it but Harry did. He could smell the pain and grief on her. A very delicate scent mixed in with her beautiful long red hair that had tricked the course of time and suddenly came to hang at her waist during the two weeks that school had been out. Her skin held a tint of honey to it, still pale but golden. She looks like she comes from the sun, he decided. That much was true. The odd gold fleck still gleamed in her eyes. She looked like a very tragic fairytale. Why was she so sad? A stab of annoyance went through him. Who was she to be so sad? Sadness had become a cliché emotion for him and him only. Maybe Remus too, but Ginny Weasley? Youngest child and the baby daughter of the Weasley clan… she must have gotten a showering of love and affection, she must've had everything that he didn't. Why in bloody Merlin's name was she sad? Harry was determined to figure her out.

That was how Remus found them, two hours later, well into the afternoon. He strode jubilantly into the room expecting to find something hard and compact hurled his way when he happened upon the two teenagers gazing at each other with more curiosity and understanding than anything else. It stopped him mid-step to see this. He had only ever seen Harry like this once and that was during a period of deep mourning for Sirius, and he'd _never_ witnessed a silent Ginny.

Ginny notice him first. She felt a quiet disturbance of peace when she sensed someone else in the room. No words had passed between her and Harry since their debuting squabble. They'd read each other clean through and it was completely futile to use words anymore. Ginny turned to see Remus, breaking the comfortable and knowing gaze she'd shared with Harry. Surprised, he too looked up.

"Halo Remus."

"Halo to you too. That must've been a cosy few hours." he observed, "Harry everyone is running amok frantic. You'd better go out there and tell them you haven't been killed off." Harry gave a quick nod of assent and with a brief quizzical look at Ginny left the room to find the rest of the Order. Remus and Ginny stayed in the Drawing Room, the latter much calmer than she should've been under the circumstances.

"I'd like to say that I'm livid and am currently thinking of some way in which I can deduce you to a pile of dust, but that would be perfectly pointless. Plus, that was probably the most productive few hours of my summer holiday." She remarked frankly. "So, why'd you do it Remus? I've known you for far to long to think that you just woke up this morning and decided to lock Harry and I in a room on his birthday."

"Well, now that you've brought it up, that's exactly what happened!" Ginny offered a wry smile to which Remus responded by completely ignoring her knowing full well that everything he'd set out to achieve had been accomplished. So there, HAAH. "I've asked Professor Dumbledore and your mother… though I must say the latter was harder to persuade, and they'd both given me the go ahead to take you to Diagon Alley for a bit to pick something out for Harry. I think she thought that the shame of a you not having something for him was a bit more poignant than a possible threat on your life… but there you go, she loves him very much." Ginny's countenance brightened and then darkened considerably at this. She sniffed… her mother always did care about Harry a little more than expected. More than she cared about Ginny, she was certain.

"Fine. I'll go grab my savings. Mind you, I need some things of my own. I'm not about to dedicate a trip to Diagon Alley all on Harry."

Remus looked on with great amusement as she stalked out of the room undoubtedly to do what she said she would. He remembered very long ago time ago another feisty redhead had snubbed another black-haired boy in a very similar manner. A pang of memory stabbed him but he shrugged it off. Today was about Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter.

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Notes:

**Hnz786**: Halo! I realize that you might have envisioned Harry's part to be different. I think right now, dialogue between Harry and Ginny would be wasted. They were never friends before, to suddenly make them close would be awkward. They're learning about each other, it builds a strong foundation for the future.

**Remus**: Haah! Sneaky bastard this one is. I always thought Rowling and other writers downplayed Remus's capacity for mischief. There's got to be a reason why he was a Marauder… I thought it was prime time he pulled a prank of his own. Hey! At least his was productive.

**Black Orb**: It'll come in good time!

**Brown Hair**: Hmmm… who has got warm brown hair and makes Ginny bothered… I wonder!

Hope you had fun with this! It was a short chapter, I know! School's back with a vengeance!

- PT


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (haah… yes I do… and his alter-ego Professor Caelestis) and Inkdependant Quills and the Auxilium Memoria. :Heeh:

**Author's Note**: Hmm… what to say… intro of some characters in this chapter.

**Author's Note Part II**: Sorry guys! I'm reloading this chapter! Found… to my great despair, some rather obtuse mistakes, and I just can't live with them!

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Chapter Five: A Surprise Encounter

She was gazing longingly at Madam Malkins' trying very hard to decide how to split her remaining time. Gladrags or Malkins? Mainstream or quality? Finally, she settled for Madam Malkins'. Her short black hair bristled in the summer breeze as she pulled on her companion's sleeve.

"Hey, I'm going to go check out Madam Malkins'… I told mum that I'd get myself some half-decent dress robes this year." The young man next to her, also sporting black hair, though in a shaggier, longer variation nodded his assent. From across the street, Draco Malfoy was staring at this strange duo, an uncharacteristic ice cream cone in his hand. She was very pretty in all the right ways. He was damned sure he'd seen her somewhere too. Ditching the ice cream in a nearby rubbish bin, he followed the couple into the store. _At least the girl has style_, he noted. Far too many young witches today were running off to places like Gladrags where they all ended up more or less buying the same two or three dress robes, wearing them to Hogwarts' functions… it was more or less like wearing skanky uniforms. _Disgusting_. Draco sneered at the thought.

He entered the shop and fixed his eyes upon the two black-haired figures in the back corner… in the woman's section… He noted with apprehension that the more chic and pricey selections were near the front of the shop. Shrugging it off, he approached them… it was amazing how fast girls could change, he decided as he saw that she was already in a dress: a rich burgundy one. Very becoming.

"It looks brilliant, Gin. Great contrast with the hair." The girl rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh… _Gin_, so she had a name.

"Oh for crying out loud Re - ", the girl suddenly stopped as she caught him in the mirror, " – omulus." She pivoted and faced him. Draco drew in a sharp breath… the girl looked stunning close up. _Where had he seen her before_? "Can I help you?" she asked, and he snapped back to the present. The girl – Gin, sounded none too pleased at his observation of her.

"I was just admiring a beautiful young woman in a breathtaking dress." he offered smoothly. "Draco Malfoy, pleasure to meet you." The girl looked him up and down. Then she laughed. A light tinkling laugh and his blood was on fire.

"Pleasure is all mine Mr. Malfoy. My, you're very smooth with the ladies." she said turning back to her dress.

"And does the young lady have a name?" he asked. The young man next to Ginny made a very irritated sound. Gin however turned to him with a broad smile.

"Gin… for Virginia. Please, call me Gin though, the latter is so formal. This is my brother, Romulus." Draco looked him up and down. Brother, eh? Well, then he'll have to be dealt with. Putting on a winning smile, he offered his hand which Romulus grudgingly took.

"Your sister knows how to steal a man's heart."

"Man? How quaint." came his biting reply. Draco frowned a little… and who was he to speak like that to him? They were obviously not of a high classed family as he'd never seen them before and they obviously weren't well-off enough to shop in the recent arrivals section. Virginia's tinkling laugh caught his attention again as she laid a hand on Romulus's arm.

"Now, now, brother dearest. Don't scaring off all my suitors. So, Mr. Malfoy. How do you think I look?"

"Brilliant, though, I must point out, there are far nicer selections over there." He said, nodding to the front of the shop.

"Ah, nicer, yes… but sadly, my taste and my pocket only go so far." She was quite the charmer. Draco put on his infamous smirk.

"How about the lady lets me find something for her? A gift from an admiring pursuer?" She looked delighted and nodded her consent. Draco strode to the front of the shop and expertly began flipping through the dresses. Shopping with his mother, sad though it sounded, had provided him with more than enough experience in women's fashions, and Draco himself was a very tasteful young man.

At the back of the shop, the two black-haired siblings were having a much less pleasant experience.

"What are you doing!" Remus whispered harshly. Ginny glared at him.

"I'm making friends."

"With the son of the man who contributed to Sirius's death? A Death Eater in the making?" Ginny grimaced at the reminder.

"Oh really, Remus, I thought maybe at my age I'd say something that obtuse, but you… really, you're hurling surprises at my today. First that business with Harry, and now this. I'll have you know that I'm perfectly aware of what I'm doing."

"Yes, and I'm sure he will be just as accommodating when he discovers that you're Ginny Weasley." She scowled but schooled her expression as Draco made his way back to her. He noted that the brother still looked rather unhappy about the situation. _Meh, sore loser_. He held out the dresses he had picked. Gin looked on with a bright smile. They were lovely dresses, to be sure. She felt like Cinderella.

"Green, my House colour… I attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He said by means of explanation. She smiled at this.

"I know someone who goes as well, she says it's wonderful."

"She's spot on. Brilliant place." He affirmed, handing her the green one, beckoning to the changing rooms. Ginny shrugged off her robes and pulled the dress up around her. It was a deep emerald like Harry's eyes and had straps that extended around her neck. She was reminded of the dresses of American women in the 1950s though this one was long and had a bodice that showed off her waist and hips. She imagined herself looking like she normally would, with red hair, in that dress. Smiling, she opened the door of the dressing room and modelled the dress for Remus who looked very surprised and Draco who was drinking her in with his eyes. His features eased into a smile. "You look beautiful, Virginia." Ginny curtsied.

"All thanks to your wonderful taste, Mr. Malfoy." Draco nodded in appreciation and did his best to memorize her. He handed her the next dress, a midnight blue confection that shimmered with movement. It was a dress of fluid material like Invisibility Cloaks, almost velvet, but lighter. Ginny took it and went in to change. This dress made her look Greek with its accentuation at the ribbon just under her chest and smalls sleeves that perched around the shoulders. Draco nodded in approval but liked the first one better. Finally, he handed her a black dress which Ginny blanched at. It was gorgeous, but so… revealing! She could see Remus tense up at the suggestion. Not wanting to start anything resembling a dispute, Ginny plucked the dress out of Draco's hand and hastily shut herself in the dressing room…

It was black like the night. Its halter straps were thick and made of silk. There was a cut at the front of the dress that extended well below her chest and the clinched fabric of the waist accentuated her figure. There was a slight train of shiny silk in the middle of the otherwise matt black fabric. A similar streak of silk also ran in the front from where the cut ended below her chest to, widening to a sheet of floaty material down the front of the dress.

Ginny opened the door of the dressing room apprehensively; she had definitely never seen herself like this before. Remus spluttered slightly but Draco, Draco couldn't find any words that could mean a damn at that precise moment. Breathtaking? No, that was too tame a word. It was halting, yes… but also an understatement. Ginny blushed under his gaze.

"You're having that dress." Draco said, finally. He gestured for her to go in and change… he'd be expected back at the Manor soon, he'd have to make it quick. Ginny didn't need anymore encouragement; she changed very quickly and came out wearing her normal robes again. Draco took the dress from her and went to look for Madam Malkins, leaving Ginny with a slightly distraught Remus.

"Well… I couldn't have looked that bad."

"Of course not." He replied with a hoarse voice, it just wouldn't do for Ginny to know how reminded he was of Lily Evans at that moment. Remus took charge when Draco came back with the dress, immediately making excuses for them – their mother was waiting for them and they must leave. Draco could hardly get a question in edgewise as to what her surname was or where she was from before they were out the door.

Very frustrated, Draco looked at the spot near the door from where Virginia Something-or-another had just disappeared. He vowed then and there to see her again somehow.

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Remus and Ginny returned with a pop to Grimmauld Place, her various items clutched under her arm. Remus muttered a few spells and transfigured both of them back to their normal selves.

"That was a lovely time." Chortled Ginny, ascending the stairs with her packets. Too disgruntled to make any semblance of a reply, Remus went into the kitchen to let the Order know they'd returned.

Upstairs in the privacy of her room, Ginny unpacked her dress and looked at it lovingly. Who knew Draco Malfoy could be so charming when he wanted to be? She'd only ever known him from his biting insults but she'd heard rumours of his manner towards people he deemed worthy. Well… if Virginia could be worthy, so could she, Ginevra Weasley. Fingering the material, she hung it up in her wardrobe and looked over her other items. She'd taken advantage of the trip to use most of her savings… she would not appear clothed like a rag dog that year at Hogwarts… for one, her skirts were becoming indecently short, and her shirts too tight. She was very pleased with her new school robes and immensely happy with the Quidditch gloves she'd purchased for herself. Next came her school books… she wouldn't make life harder for her parents by asking them to by her texts for her. She would mostly use Fred and Georges' old ones, but she was taking some courses that they'd never touched… Advance Seventh Year Transfiguration and Potions for example. She'd also gotten a new potions kit… heaven knew why she liked the subject so much… it could've been because Snape amused her to no end. Finally, after packing fresh parchment and several new Inkdependant Quills into her school trunk, she reached for Harry's birthday present. She'd searched high and low, browsing through almost ever shop and nearly driving Remus insane with impatience looking for something suitable and heartfelt.

After sharing that moment with Harry, she found herself knowing him far better… knowing exactly what he needed. It was a very personal gift, she knew he'd know the moment he saw it. The gift was a manifestation of something that had both damned and redeemed her.

The diary was a deep red… the shopkeeper had informed her that it was made of dragon's hide… a rare species found in the northern snows of Siberia… She'd asked for Harry's name to be embossed inside the front cover. Its corners were capped with golden caps that prevented them from rubbing and wearing out. She specifically saw to it that the diary had manual and magical locks. Keys would be needed, passwords, charms… all personalized for Harry. Across the front of the book she'd asked Diagon Alley's Magical Tattoos for Magical Persons' Master Tattooist to etch the words **Auxilium Memoria**. _To help remember_. That was her purpose. That was how Lohengrin had dictated that she'd help Harry in this battle. Those were the words scrawled across her own back…

Suddenly, she remembered it with a shock… her back. The black dress she'd worn and modelled for Draco had no back. He could easily have seen the tattoo… If he did, wouldn't he have asked? He had a practiced eye… wouldn't Remus had seen it too? Surely Remus would have mentioned it… Ginny felt nauseated with the sudden anxiety. Human transfiguration of that level would not have covered up the tattoo… _Merlin help me_.

A shout from downstairs brought her attention to the time… It was seven in the evening… dinner time. Brilliant. Ginny took the diary she meant for Harry and placed it in the small silk bag she had bought to hold it in. Clutching it to her for support, she made her way downstairs and placed her gift amongst the myriad of other ones on the Family Room table.

Dinner was an excellent meal. Molly Weasley must have burnt out a few brain cells with her cooking… everything from Sheppard's Pie and Yorkshire pudding to Ham Pie, her homemade lasagne and smoked salmon fettuccines dressed the table. A crowd of all the Order members, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, all the Weasleys, Arion, Hermione, and Remus were present. With almost twenty or so people crammed into the dining room, the affair was lively, animated and Ginny saw Harry's eyes brighten for the first time in ages. He ate with the fervour of a starved prisoner sampling everything in seconds and thirds. Ron, needless to say, outdid Harry by at least double while Ginny herself piled liberal servings onto her own plates.

When pudding was finally served (cherry pie, homemade ice cream, chocolate gateau and wine for the adults) everyone was almost full to bursting, but still honoured Molly's great cooking and did the meal justice.

At last, Ron declared that he was finished and that present unwrapping time would begin, everyone filed into the Family Room in various states of elation. Molly spruced up mugs of hot chocolate while everyone sat in a huge circle on the ground with Harry in the centre looking abashed at his mountain of gifts. Never had he received so much!

He got some real splendid stuff that birthday… well, seventeen _was_ an important age in the wizarding world. From Molly and Arthur he'd received a heavy pocket watch that was apparently a family heirloom, as all the Weasley boys looked on with admiration and a little envy.

"Hey! Where's my family heirloom?"

"You'll get yours Ronald, just like Bill, Charlie, Percy and the twins got theirs." Molly said firmly. Ron grinned, not really all that affected in any case… just trying to get a rise out of his parents. Tonks had gotten him a set of professional Quidditch robes, charmed into Gryffindor colours which Harry received with such appreciation that everyone laughed.

The gifts ranged from the entire new range of Weasley's Wizard Weezes, dress robes from Hermione (a surprise to everyone), letters from his parents to one another (a gift from Dumbledore which Harry took with a shaking hand). Remus had produced an animal unknown to everyone in the room save Hermione.

"An ocelot, Remus!"

"Yes, and ocelot. Perfectly harmless, I assure you." The baby ocelot was a beautiful thing and it immediately cosied up to Harry, purring.

At last, the only remaining present was Ginny's, looking a little sad all by itself on the table in its rich silk bag. Harry looked at her curiously as he reached for it.

"I thought you'd need something like it." she said by means of explanation. Remus smiled knowingly from the circle, aware of Ginny's purchase. He'd felt very calm the moment she bought it, as if she'd sealed some deal with Fate and all would be good.

Harry took the pouch and reached in, pulling out the diary. His eyes widened just a little, enough for Ginny to notice it when he saw the diary. Ginny looked over to Arion who caught her gaze and offered the first small genuine smile that she'd ever seen him give her, and gave her a small nod.

Harry fingered the beautiful cover of the diary.

"Auxilium Memoria?" he asked.

"It means 'to help remember' in latin." she said, smilingly, "Hopefully that's what it'll do… help you remember." Harry looked at her meaningfully and to everyone's utmost surprise, he reached over and gathered Ginny a long, tight hug. Everyone looked on with a bit of shock, while it took Ginny several seconds of blinking before she gathered her wits and hugged him back. When he let go she was a very attractive shade of red. "Well, the locks on that diary are about just as hard to break through as that hug there, Harry. Very crafty of you." She said lightly, breaking the awkwardness. Harry laughed along with the others. Ginny looked very relieved as she continued, "I'll show you exactly how to open the diary later on… wouldn't want to spill all the secrets to everyone, now would we?"

"No indeed!" laughed Harry who slipped the diary back into the silk pouch and thanked everyone heartily. They all went through his gifts again, making comments, expressing admiration. Bill started recounting stories of his Hogwarts days while Dumbledore delighted everyone with his tales of his youth.

Finally, the fire in the hearth threatened to fizz out and everyone finished their hot chocolate before climbing lazily up the stairs to bed. Ginny and Arion stuck behind to help Harry get his gifts upstairs: there were so many of them and a small wildcat, no less.

Arion left the two of them in his room to go through the locking and unlocking procedures of the diary. It was more or less fruitless as Harry was beyond concentrating. Instead, he just looked at Ginny for a while and finally said,

"I feel like I've known you forever." Ginny met his gaze with her own golden-brown one. Her lip quivered ever so slightly. She'd always felt a bit like crying whenever anyone said something flattering and heartfelt to her. It hurt her for them to say it, and she didn't know why.

"You'll always have me here Harry, never forget it." she whispered. He strode up to her and crushed her in another hug. Ginny felt her breath steal away. "Harry… you can always depend on me. If not me, the diary."

"I know. Thank you." He whispered. Finally, the small ocelot pushed its way between them and he let go of her with a playful, warm smile, "Feisty little one ain't she?

"A girl is it? Are you going to give her a name?"

"I'll figure something out… I don't suppose you can call a cat like this any regular old name."

"No indeed." laughed Ginny. Harry looked at her with real fondness and appreciation.

"Get some rest Gin, it's well past midnight." he said. Ginny returned the smile with one of her own and shut the door quietly behind her.

She left Harry's room that night feeling a sense of content that she hadn't felt in ages. It was a feeling of warmth and gladness of the heart as if for once the planets had made good their alliance and the Gods were smiling down at them. Smiling inwardly, she made her way back to her room and fell into one of the deepest and restful sleeps she'd had in a long time.

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**Notes**:

**Draco**: I told you he'd be part of the story! In a good way too!

**Virginia**: I also told you I'd use the two names interchangeably!

**Romulus**: In Ancient Roman mythology, the founders of Rome were Romulus and Remus… twin brothers raised by a wolf. It was the first name that popped into my mind when I first read about Remus… so I kind of passed that on to Ginny.

**The Dress**: The black dress is modelled after one of my own from Jessica McClintock. It's absolutely gorgeous and I wore it to a ball in Vienna during summer time. I think it'd look stunning on the Ginny that I see in my mind.

**Ocelots**: Ocelots are beautiful wild cats that live in the jungle… (Panama… etc. etc.) They're gorgeously spotted and so elusive that scientists and photographers find it hard to capture them on film. Anyone have a suggestion for a name:Grin:

**The Tattoo**: Auxilium Memoria… hmmm… soon we'll discover the true nature of Ginny's infamous Lohengrin tattoo!

Hope you guys liked this chapter! Review!

- PT


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (Professor Caelestis), Kiribati, Harrumph's Wizarding Dictionary, "fuckage", and Damascus.

**Chapter 6**: With corrections… oi I seriously need someone to edit my work before it goes online!

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Chapter 6: The Coming of Damascus

Summer went by far too quickly for comfort. Ginny woke up early on August 31st to soak up every last morsel of summer before Sixth Year closed in for good. The entire household was running around rabidly, packing last-minute quills, ironing robes… finding robes (Ron), looking for Prefect Badges. Was Ginny a prefect this year? Most unwelcomingly, yes, yes she was. Damnation to the gods above. Her badge had come in the mail the same time Harry's Quidditch Captain's badge came along with a lift on his Quidditch ban. Ron had continued on as prefect while Hermione was Head Girl – big shocker, that one. There had been a round of celebrations in which the twins expressed their dismay that Ginny had failed to follow in their footsteps of defying Hogwarts law. Well, excuse her, but it wasn't like she asked to be a prefect. Far from it… it meant that she'd be spending sixth year evenings roaming hallways on patrol as opposed to roaming the hallways making hell for the patrollers… Oi

How was she planning to spend her last glorious day of summer? She, Ginny Weasley, was going to Diagon Alley, again. That's right, Diagon Alley. The very same fateful shopping area where she, as Virginia Surnameless, had met Draco Malfoy and reserved judgement that he was, in fact, not an arse. Now she was going back. Not to see Draco, no, that could come later on during the school year, but to get something. Something that would hide a certain something else. Why? Because recent developments with a certain black orb and a certain earth-bound Seraph had caused her to believe that she'd need a safe place to store the aforementioned item. Preferably in a box that had no openings so that that bloody Arion of a Seraph couldn't get his hands on it and ask annoying questions.

What had happened? Well, if you really want to know, Ginny walked into her room one afternoon when she was supposed to be outside indulging in the sunshine, and what did she find but a delicious looking Arion sprawled on her bed. Normally, this would have be a very inviting sight, only he was toying with an object that he wasn't even supposed to know about. Sweet Merlin. Think fast.

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_"What is this?" Ginny's breath caught in her throat. Somehow this seemed awfully, awfully wrong._

_"What are you doing?"_

_"I asked you first. What is this?" he returned, turning the orb over and over in his hands. Ginny couldn't speak. Arion lying there nonchalantly on her bed, playing with that damned black orb, had to be the most incorrect thing she'd ever seen and no good could possibly come from it. "What is it?" he asked again._

_"I don't know." she said evenly. She went over to him very quietly and took the orb out of his hands. He didn't stop her, or resist in any way, but his mark had been left there all the same. Seraphim tended to do that… mark their belongings. Arion rose from her bed and looked down at Ginny, who at that moment, felt very small… much smaller than she liked feeling. He directed one long, piercing look at her and she felt winded. The room around her began to blur. She felt the ball slip from her hands and things went very dark. _Damned Seraphim and their damned powers.

_She'd woken up that way too, a heap on the floor, ball a little ways away from her. At least Arion hadn't taken the thing with him… he hadn't helped her up either. In fact, he had completely vacated the room and Ginny was to find in the succeeding minutes that he was downstairs having an animated and very innocent conversation with none other than Hermione Granger._

_"You look horrid!" she declared, as Ginny descended the stairs. _Thank you Miss. Sour Apple, _she thought, ignoring her and snatching a muffin off the counter._

_"Ginny, I realize that you've been trying to build up curves this past summer… heaven knows you've been eating enough, but you had lunch about an hour ago." – an hour… that meant she'd only been out for about five minutes, and it meant that Arion had only just started talking to Hermione. Excellent._

_"Thank you for your touching concern, Professor. I find it not at all troubling that you would be noticing my… ah, _curves_." she said delicately. Hermione had been watching this exchange, a little annoyed that Arion was talking about Ginny's curves and not her own twiggy figure, was then very intrigued when she heard Ginny's less than welcoming answer. It just had to be so convenient that Hermione was in fact a rather brilliant young witch who could easily put two and two together… thus, later on that evening… a certain conversation transpired._

_"Ginny! I was hoping to catch you alone. I wanted to have a chat with you." Ginny's eyes blinked incomprehension at her… Hermione Granger wanted to talk to her, Ginny Weasley. Ginny Weasley didn't like her. At. All. Ooooookay. "I'm worried about you," she continued, _ooooooookay._ "I know you're growing up and all, and this must be a phase, but I don't think it's a good idea going around tempting professors. It just won't do."_

Blink once, blink twice_. :Minute explosion: A certain equilibrium was thrown off._

_"Hermione." She began very comfortably with a smile, "Fuck. Off." Ginny pushed past the older girl who very nearly reached out and caught her by the arm but decided against it upon Ginny's death glare. _

She? _Ginny Weasley, tempting a professor? Bloody fuckage._

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Ginny didn't know why she had such a strong instinct to protect a black ball that had never done anything, which she didn't know anything about, and which seemed harmless… but she somewhere deep down, she knew she had to keep it safe. Keep it from prying eyes, the multitude of people who couldn't wait to get a story.

That was why Ginny Weasley was going to Diagon Alley during the last day of her summer holidays. If Draco Malfoy decided to show up… well, he wouldn't recognize her and he most certainly wouldn't speak to her voluntarily short of launching insults at her.

The morning rolled away as Ginny sat in the Black residence library reviewing her homework before stowing that away and preparing for her trip. Ginny was not of a wealthy family. She didn't get an allowance and she didn't taken charity money from other people. No, Ginny Weasley wrote for money. She wrote poetry, she wrote short stories, and she wrong songs for money… so naturally, she had a bit more than the normal Weasley would be expected to have. She didn't have an account at Gringotts, so for safekeeping, she'd kept the galleons and sickles she'd accumulated in a small chest that possessed no magical properties. Just an inch thick bolt that spanned the perimeter of the box: completely impenetrable save burning or hacking to pieces… both of which would destroy the soft ore-made coins inside.

It was while she was counting out fifty galleons that the brilliant idea struck her. The box was a perfectly good hiding spot. It was an average chest that jingled with the money inside. Were she to bury the ball inside the coins, no amount of shaking the chest would result in anyone thinking there was anything more that money there. Very please with herself, she set the fifty galleons aside and fetched the black ball which she placed in a ditch of coins and covered with more coins. Sliding the bolt into its place and locking it with a large rusty key, Ginny picked the chest up and violently shook it about… only tinkling. Briiiiiiiiiiiiilliant.

That just meant a trip to Diagon Alley without an agenda. She could do whatever she wanted. Suddenly, the ideas were flying… she could look at those advance spell books she'd wanted, she could buy robes, she could… she could… Ginny paused. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

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Three scoops of ferrero rocher flavoured ice cream with extra chopped hazelnuts later Ginny was happily wiping her mouth on a napkin wondering what she'd do next… Forty eight galleons left… maybe she'd brought too much with her.

Undisguised this time, Ginny's fiery hair hung near her waist, her deep brown and gold flecked eyes darted this way and that. The delights of shopping never failed to put a spring in her step… Draco Malfoy never failed to take that spring out of her step.

Oh, and there he was right at the line up at Fortescue's walking straight to the front of the line, no doubt angering many customers who opted to hold their peace in the presence of the Malfoy heir. Ginny stared open-mouthed at him. She was accustomed to his rude behaviour, but this was rather obtuse… even for him.

With ice cream in hand, he turned from the line and seated himself at a table very close to hers. She tensed up and suddenly found the cobblestone path beneath her feet utterly fascinating.

"Weasley?" came the expected mocking tone. Ginny turned and schooled her expression. "Well, well, well, I didn't know your family had quite enough money to afford shopping trips here." Ginny looked him up and down… _getting very old, very fast Malfoy_.

"Well, Mr. Malfoy, it seems your charm comes sporadically and rarely." she observed grimly. Draco seemed not at all effected by this as he scoffed and took a bite out of his ice cream… with a spoon no less. If any other boy had taken a bite of ice cream with a spoon, Ginny may have run down the opposite direction of the street screeching her head off… As it were, it wasn't another boy, and the ice cream in spoon was very befitting of him.

"And you would know this because you know exactly how charming I am." he said, astoundingly good-naturedly eyeing her with some interest.

"You'd be surprised how quickly word goes round that you aren't a Grade A bastard all the time." Ginny returned, rising to leave. Draco's gaze followed her, a little puzzled, a little amused, and not at all concerned. She left Fortescue's unaware of what she'd accomplished… but, that really wasn't the point of why she was in Diagon Alley.

No, she was there because Harry had an ocelot named Kiribati who had brought plenty of joy and playfulness to his life, and now she wanted a cat of her own. A very pretty cat.

In fact, a very pretty cat that was white with black-blue stripes that half-growled, half-mewed when she saw it in the display cases at the shop. Ginny didn't know her soul animal yet, and it wouldn't be for many months until she saw it in its true Animigus form, but she felt her heart breaking at the sight of this cat in a glass cage. She found herself reaching into the tank and stroking it fur.

"My word young lady, get your hands out of there!" came the unmistakeable gasp of the shopkeeper. True to her word, she strode over and pulled Ginny's hand out of the cage. "Do you have any idea what that is?" Unfortunately for the shop owner, the sight of the animal had frozen Ginny's capacity for social niceties.

"I would imagine a caged animal." snapped Ginny. The woman scoffed… such compassion coming from a shopper who stood amidst hundreds of caged animals… the shop was full of them. Lizards, birds, rats, rabbits, owls… cats too…

"It's a very pricey pet." the keeper said smugly. Ginny looked over to the price tag and true to the keeper's word, the price made her heart sink… she had forty eight galleons, and this beautiful thing, priceless in reality, weighed a staggering six hundred. _Six hundred_. Ginny swooned at the thought… That was all of her siblings' school supplies and the cost of food for two weeks and then some. A little cough of despair caught in her throat. She wanted to cry. She felt like a five year old denied a lot of candy!

The chime on the door sounded as another customer stepped into the shop. The keeper bustled over while Ginny squatted in front of the cage prepared to make a goodbye speech to the animal. Quite inconveniently, an unwelcome figure made his presence known.

"What's this Weasley, no real friends?" came the drawl of a certain Draco Malfoy. "Oh lookie!... my, my six hundred galleons. Now that's a sum isn't it?" he asked, looking everywhere but at Ginny. When he did look at her, the smirk was firmly in place, his countenance was still the apogee of arrogance. Ginny looked away… _git_. "How now, Weasley… what _are_ you planning to do?" he said candidly, dropping down next to her to get a good look at the tiger. "Pretty thing, that."

"What do you want Malfoy?" she asked tiredly.

"Well, if you want to know, I was trying to make friends."

"You don't do friends." Malfoy considered this for a second, and then nodded, smiling.

"True Weasley, true. But for some reason, oh, I don't know why, seeing you today reminded of someone I met a while ago. I bought dress robes for her, she was positively delightful."

"And that affects me how?" Ginny demanded… _bloody fuckage… he knows! How does he know?_

"So Virginia… or Ginevra, what is it? How's about Gin, like I first heard. Gin… what do you have to say about the entire thing?" Without waiting for an answer, Malfoy did something wonderfully incredible and which Ginny was to remember for years and years to come. Waving the store keeper over, Malfoy pointed directly at the tiger. "I'll be taking that." Ginny looked at him wide-eyed. Not only was the bastard going to mock her when she'd already taken a fall, he was going to take the tiger right from under her nose! For some undisputed reason she felt that the tiger already belonged to her. Spluttering, she tried to say something which came out something like…

"Arghbuthwha!" Draco gave her a very amused look.

"No worries, I speak troll" he said in a pacifying manner to the shop keeper. The shop keeper looked from one teen to the other. Finally, after handing over the debit key to his Gringotts vault Draco was handed the baby tiger. He looked at it, stroked its fur… buried his nose in it (much to Ginny's jealousy)… Finally, he was finished with his infuriating antics and in an act so surprising that Ginny felt disoriented for a second, he put the tiger on the ground, "Go… go to mommy."

The tiger looked appreciatively at him before trotting over to Ginny who didn't know what to do for a second. Finally she bent down and picked the little thing up.

"Ooooh… oh you darling thing, look at you." she cooed. Ginny wasn't the cooing type, but the baby tiger was a coo-deserving creature. Draco walked up to her,

"I'm giving you this tiger." he stated blandly.

"Thank you." she said.

What happened after that no one was ever able to say. No amount of Pensieve-gazing could really sift reality from personal emotions, but a certain shop keeper lived to tell many years later that the two teenagers had exchanged a long deep look afterwards. Then they parted. The boy left first not looking back, and the girl much later, staring at the place where he disappeared around a corner.

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Four o'clock that afternoon…

"So you just went to Diagon Alley and bought a tiger?" Ron asked incredulously for about the millionth time.

"Yes, Ronald, I went to Diagon Alley and purchased a pet tiger." If he asked once more she'd take the nearest object and beat him with it.

"You just went to Diagon Alley and bought a _tiger_." Ginny reached over for a copy of Harrumph's Wizarding Dictionary and unceremoniously thwacked the side of Ron's head with it. He yelped but save a few indecencies wisely decided not to ask about the events of purchasing the tiger again.

She had yet to choose a name for the cat… Harry had gone ahead and blindly pointed to a place on a map of the world (the island of Kiribati) and named his ocelot that. Ginny wasn't about to do that.

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Draco Malfoy was a peculiar fellow. In his youth he was tall and toned from years of Quidditch training. Somehow, he always looked more graceful than the other players though, there was a hidden fluidity to him that made even the sturdiest man stop and wonder at him. When he was grown he'd be at the top of the list for best looking, wealthy, influential, successful, and something else… His trademark would become the black Burberry turtleneck he wore with Armani slacks under a personally fitted Iceberg trench. While he favoured green now as his house colours, he harboured an affinity towards black which translated to his clothing. His silver and black leather Emporio Armani watch went beautifully with the sleek black Guccis that he wore on his feet. Surprisingly, he would take to wearing gloves. He would eventually befriend the fashion moguls and business tycoons of both the Wizarding and Muggle world. Similarly, he would get his fair share of celebrities. Many would call him Superman.

But just then, Draco Malfoy was a seventeen year old young man ordering House Elves around while preparing for his last year at Hogwarts. His father no longer haunted the halls of the Malfoy Manor – shut away in Azkaban along with his estranged aunt and many of the top ranking Death Eater… something to do with a particularly humiliating event at the Ministry just before the summer of sixth year. His mother had recovered during the past year, now an animated and strong-willed woman like she was before her marriage to Lucius Malfoy. Draco too had adjusted well to his absence.

In fact, it would be that absence which would revolutionize the Wizarding world in years to come. Draco decided that he would begin chipping away the fresco of blood-related hierarchy and meeting the beautiful Virginia was the starting point of this project.

He had left Diagon Alley the day of meeting Virginia contemplating many things. They included the trying feeling in his gut that he was going against the principles he had been raised with… high blood did not mingle with low blood… and Virginia was obviously not high blood… well, she was now, that she turned out to be half Prewett half Weasley.

He reckoned he realized that Virginia was actually Ginevra when she glared at him outside of Fortescue's… the very same glare that she'd given to him when he's walked in on her and… Romulus…? in Madam Malkins… he wondered what she'd look like now in the dress he'd bought her.

All the same, the day had been a fulfilling one. Meeting her again… having a half-decent talk with her, buying her that tiger… there was an eerie connection between her and that tiger – if you were wondering – Draco didn't buy it on impulse. He wondered what she'd name it.

Contemplating his options, Draco watched at Figgy closed the lid on his trunk and bowed to him, "Master Draco, we is all done here."

"Very good Figgy. Tell the others to begin whipping something spectacular up for tonight." Draco said. "Oh, and one more invitation to send out, if you please, Figgy, tell the owls that this has to reach the addressee before the soiree."

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"MOTHER! POST!" Bill called from the kitchen. A delicate and expensive looking envelope and seal had made its way to their postal depot a few miles away… safe keeping you know, it wouldn't do to have random owls flying to Grimmauld place. Molly pattered into the kitchen… the letter was address to The Weasley Family and Company. Who addressed letters like that? Shaking her head, she opened it.

…

…

…

…

…

"ARTHUR! ALISTAIR!"

Seven adults, and six teenagers rushed to the room… Molly Weasley brandished the letter at her husband. It read like so…

_Draco Malfoy_

_Invites the Weasley Family and Company_

_To his Annual Summer Soiree_

_10:00pm – 3:00am_

_Malfoy Mansion_

"Well… that's nice of him." Arthur said quietly. Ginny's eyes were wide as she read and re-read the invitation. Ron was howling… all in all, there was mass confusion.

Finally, Moody roared for them to all quiet down while he contacted Dumbledore.

Ten minutes later, Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace at number 12 Grimmauld Place holding a very similar invitation.

"I believe that young Draco is expecting us!" he said cordially. "I suggest we all go and put on our dress robes."

"You're going!" Ron asked stupidly.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley, I believe it to be a good idea. Now, if you please, I would like a word." Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all filed to their respective rooms in varying moods to prepare for the Malfoy soiree while Dumbledore turned to the Order. "I must ask that you give young Draco a chance. His father's deeds are just that. As we all should know well, a name does not mean anything. Draco is young but full of potential and I believe he will be great. It is our job is to see that he gets an opportunity… I'm sure Sirius would understand what I mean." The Order looked at each other. "Now… who can tell me what colour looks better, sunset orange or a shade of merlot…"

…

Ginny was stroking Damascus – the tiger, that is. She really wanted to bring him with her tonight… after all, Draco did buy him. She was sitting on her bed in the dress that Draco had bought her… her hair tied loosely in a half bun. The dress had absolutely no back and the front scooped tastefully and wonderfully low. The triangles of fabric from the dip to the halter straps behind her back were filled out and she'd spent fifteen minutes in front of the mirror contemplating pinning the front together… she'd finally decided against it. Everything was soft… her hair was liquid, fire, her skin a honey-golden tinged paleness. She didn't like the sharp edges that crept into fashion these days… the thin, dramatic eyeliners or the chiselled lips that looked stencilled on. Instead, she opted for a very soft brown that deepened her eyes and no eyeliner at all. A soft swipe of blush went over her cheeks and a conditioning on her lips. The dress and her natural features were enough to halt the breath of every man – as she was about to find out, and makeup would cheapen the look.

That was not to say that Hermione wasn't wearing any makeup. She looked very pretty with her hair tamed to shiny straight strands. She had on a shockingly out-of-character piece that was well-fittied, just above her knee, a strapless confection in deep red. Dark eyeliner circled around her eyes and deep red lipstick… quite the contrast next to Ginny.

When the two young women stepped into the parlous… long after all the men had congregated, there was a collective hitch of breath. Everyone was staring at Hermione. Ginny found this very interesting. They looked at her, looked away and looked at her again.

It was probably Bill would have noticed Ginny first… standing a little ways behind Hermione who was fair basking in the attention. Her behaviour, like her dress, was very different… in a hilarious way. Her voice was pulled to a husky tone and she moved with a deliberate and hard-practiced poise. Ginny on the other hand walked the way she did in Lohengrin, head held hide but not in hard-clipped arrogance. She spoke the way she always did and her finesse was bred into her step… it's what the Seraphim do. Arion was very happy about the way she looked.

He looked utterly wonderful. She was quite certain that no man could pull off white dress robes the way he did.

"Ginny? Is that my little sister?" Bill said drawing gazes to her. He walked up to her and engulfed her in a hug.

"You look amazing Bill." He laughed.

"Coming from who is surely to be the belle of the ball," – Hermione turned to look at Ginny at this, "I feel very honoured." Bill held out a hand in escort.

Emotions were mixed in the parlour that night… luggage stood at one end of the hall, ready for transport the next morning, while a group of very different people stood in the other… dressed in their best – be it borrowed, transfigured, mended, or newly bought – anticipating a soiree which marked a turning point in their lives.

"Are we all ready?" asked a jovial Dumbledore, who apparently decided that sunset orange was superior to merlot, as he pointed his wand at the fireplace. "Here we go… Ginny, would you bring up the rear with Bill please?"

When everyone had left through the fire, Bill hesitated a little.

"Ginny, I just want to tell you that you do look absolutely beautiful. I've never been so proud of you than now." He hugged her tightly. Ginny had felt a warm sensation creep through her… Bill _had_ always been the only brother who connected with her on all levels. She hoped that whatever would come in the future, Bill would not be lost.

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Notes:

Damascus: I like the name.

Ginny's look: I used to be very gung-ho for the look that Hermione is sporting, the blatantly strong look of a dangerous woman… then I thought a woman hardly needs makeup to look astounding. It comes from what she dictates through her eyes and how she holds herself. I don't mind a little makeup… I wear it myself to soirees and balls… and like I said before, the dress Ginny is wearing is modelled on one of my own. It doesn't need makeup to look amazing.

Draco: Draco is very interesting. As for him and the name brands, at one point I bought each of those items for some of my guy friends… and I've never seen them worn together looking the way I want them to… but were they to be put together… very nice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (Professor Caelestis), Kiribati, Harrumph's Wizarding Dictionary, "fuckage", and Damascus.

**REPOSTED WITH SLIGHT MODIFICATIONS**

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Chapter 7: The Beginnings of an Unsuspecting Friendship

The scarlet train which was the Hogwarts Express emitted a long, loud toot and Ginny placed her hands over her ears, intent on having at least a moment's peace before the school year set in. Summer break was over. That is, a summer break where many things and nothing at all happened. For the first time she felt as though summer had been an unfinished novel, and hating unfinished things, Ginny sat alone in a tiny compartment near the back of the train wishing for closure.

She could hear students, first years mostly, she was sure, thumping along awing over small spells, congregating to decide who was most crushable amongst the older students. Ginny sat there contemplating the summer. The one thing she'd neglected for the two months was her power - the new and unexpected, unwelcome power that lent her her newfound confidence. The power which, she was alarmed to discover, allowed her mind to wander through history and do something quite remarkable altogether.

The discovery came the night before, effectively, at the Malfoy soiree. She'd enjoyed herself to begin with, but the more the colours swirled around her, the more she found herself handling the emotions of three very different, and very influential men. She'd left the party and strolled into what she later discovered was the Malfoy Mansion library. Who were these three men? Why, Draco Malfoy, Arion, and Harry Potter.

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_Ginny shut the door silently behind her. Of all the doors in the damned mansion you'd think more than one out of fifty would be unlocked. Obviously that wasn't the case seeing as she'd wandered down more than two corridors and three suspicious looking passageways and was convinced she'd never find her way out again. Considering that it was, in fact, the Malfoy Mansion, she wasn't sure that was such a good thing. She had no idea where she was going but the important thing was to get away from _them_. Men::UGH: She'd never been more frustrated. All at once they came down upon her. Would she have a dance? A drink? A kiss? How about a tour of the bedrooms? She shook her head in disgust. And it wasn't only _them_ either. _They_ didn't make things easier. Bloody Slytherins. What on earth made that Malfoy boy think that Slytherins would mix well with a party of Gryffindor do-gooders._

_Apart from the occupants of Grimmauld Place, it seemed that all of Gryffindor House and Hufflepuff… and Ravenclaw were there in addition to the Slytherins. The atmosphere was a distinctly tense one, very few broke the unspoken barrier between the dreaded Slyths and the rest of Hogwarts… other than Lavender Brown and what seemed to be a far slimmer Marcus Flint (who Ginny later learned was the latter's young brother, Derek Flint) who were more or less fornicating on the dance floor. Ginny shuddered. She could count the offers she'd received that night. Five? Six? Maybe seven if she included that painting of a black-haired man who looked distinctively Malfoy who'd told her outright that were he still corporeal he'd have his way with her. Ginny had smiled winningly and hurled her drink at him. _

_Now, enveloped in the dark of what seemed an overheated room, she paused to listen for footsteps. Sooner or later Malfoy or Arion or Harry would come looking for her and she'd have to make up some elaborate excuse about looking for the loo and ending up in this… this uh… what the hell was this place?_

_A fire cackled behind her and she stumbled back, cursing. She observed that it was, in fact, a very large room filled with rows upon rows of books reaching a high, vaulted ceiling which looked out into the night sky. The fire found its source in an enormous fireplace in the centre of the room surrounded by wide sofas and couches with comfortable looking cushions and little blankets draped on the arms. A ladder swung unattended between the shelves. Ginny was delighted. It seemed to be the library of her dreams: an old fashioned, tome-filled haven which had just the right atmosphere, and just the right light. Even the books seemed welcoming. Surprisingly titles that bore names such as Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedy of Hamlet, A Hundred Years of Solitude jumped out as she realized with quiet awe that Malfoy read Muggle literature. _

_A monumental floor to ceiling window looked out over vast green which melted away into the ocean beyond. The night sky, filled with the winking brilliance of the stars, blinked down at her and she wished beyond everything that time would just stop and she could soak up the wonder that was this place. _

_Ginny didn't know how long she lay there contently gazing at the moon. At length, she'd retrieved a large dusty book, The Weird of Fionavar, a collection of poems on a Faerie Queen when she began questioning the strange silence that adhered to the mansion. She wasn't expecting to hear the revelries, but the stillness had become unnatural, and the moon hadn't moved from the sky. "…you need not fear for pain or woe, Fionavar the road you go." _

_The looming clock carved in stone above the fireplace read half past midnight. But that surely had to be wrong it'd been half past midnight when she'd first arrived. "…you need not fear for pain or woe, Fionavar, the road you go." Ginny suddenly felt chilled. _

_Throwing the book back on the shelf, she observed that the flames were cackling once again. _Had they been cackling the entire time_? Ginny herself couldn't have said how she found her way back to the ballroom but she'd burst in through two side doors which she'd not noticed before to find the party still going and the dance floor the exact same as she'd left it. _

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Three things happened that night. 1. A tentative truce was established between the occupants of Grimmauld Place and the youngest Malfoy, 2. Ginny had learned not to leave Damascus cooped up in a room for five hours without fresh air, and 3. Ginny had learned not to play with time.

Yes, yes, she'd frozen time, she realized later. It wasn't for more than half an hour, but it had frozen nonetheless and her heart pounded blood so vigorously to her mind from it that she'd fallen into bed and clutched the pillow hoping to stop the pressure in her temples.

Luckily and maybe unluckily, she wasn't alone to deal with the aftermath. When the house had fallen silent, light footsteps crept into her room and sat on her bed. Ginny opened one eye and found herself looking at the fuzzy pink nose of Damascus.

"Yelp!" she scrambled back into the headboard of the bed. "Damascus!" The little tiger looked very pleased with himself and he pawed at the blanket, creating a circular indent before settling himself in for a snooze. Ginny stared perplexed at the little cat, she'd let him out for the night… to play with Kreacher and whatnot.

"Yes, well he looked like he wanted to come in, and being the gentleman I am, I let him."

Ginny started under her blankets. There was Arion, leaning against the far post of her four-poster bed in his now signature white tee and dark green and blue plaid boxer shorts.

"Arion!"

"Yes, yes that's my name."

"What are you doing here!" she whispered in a strangled voice.

"Well, now that you've mentioned it, I supposed there're a couple of things we could talk about." He slid from the far side of the post to the foot of her bed. "Your headache… and me. Well, let's talk about me. See anything different?"

Indeed she had. In fact her eyes were bugging slightly from the man… uh… young man, who sat in front of her. "Guten tag! Ich bin Ian. Or, or, how about this… Salut, je m'appelle Louis-Christian, mais pour toi, ma cherie, Louis marche." The boy, for really, he looked about seventeen, had a huge grin – very uncharacteristic of Arion, plastered on his face, bouncing up and down slightly on her bed asking her genuinely which name suited him more.

"Who are you and what have you done to Arion?" Ginny whispered.

"I, Miss Ginny, am the new exchange student to Hogwarts. Now, choose for me, have I transferred here from Le fond de l'étang or from Schule Copernicuss von Magie?"

"The bottom of the barrel?"

"Indeed, you have to be creative with these names. I think I want to be Louis-Christian Pepinot. I love it. It's got such a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say?"

"Arion, what is going on!" The boy stopped in mid theatrics with a look of manicured surprised.

"Has no one told you? I'm playing double agent!"

"As a dingbat of a teenaged boy!" Ginny demanded.

"Now, now Miss Ginny, let us _not_ be so hard-headed. I can do many things, I'm sure you know. My talents are being enlisted for this entire Dumbledore-Order debacle. He thinks I'm a faerie, and of course, faeries can be in multiple places at the same time. Isn't it convenient that I just happened to come along?"

"So he doesn't know what you really are." she remarked. "Well then, that's a good thing." Arion smiled winningly and threw himself at the pillow next to hers, stomach down, looking up at her with large, deep, adoring eyes. "Don't do that, you look about three."

"See, that's the plan, sweetheart."

"Let's get this straight. You're going to be this Professor Caelestis character as well as an exchange student –

"Louis-Christian Pepinot, ouai."

" – Louis-Christian Pepinot, at the same time."

"Exactement. I will have buckets of fun spying on the staff and the student body. I think I've been arranged to be put into Slytherin."

"…Ew." Arion pouted.

"Not ew, Gryffindor is ew. Gryffindor has a Hero Complex."

"And that's bad because?" Ginny demanded.

"Swollen heads, sensitive egos and an insatiable need for attention. It's so draining." Arion said with a flourish. Ginny looked him up and down. He was a little easier to look at without drooling now, though still… wonderfully beautiful. His face was a little less chiselled. His hair was longer and a very soft brown. He had Draco's build and the largest, chocolate brown eyes with the most amazing eyelashes. "I know I'm pretty, but please, I'm blushing." he said snarkily. Ginny raised one eyebrow.

Several moments passed. The younger Arion was still grinning at her, and she was thinking of a way to express her thoughts.

"Arion. Are you gay?"

:silence:

Suddenly, there were two of them. Ginny's eyes widened as the twenty-something Arion and the seventeen year old one both stared at her.

"Are we gay? Arion, are we gay?"

"Well, I don't know, are we?"

"We could always just _tell _her, but I think she'd rather _experience_ it."

"How right you are, young me. How's about we do this?"

Suddenly, there was one of them… him… it? Ginny was still responding to Arion's multiplication subsequent unification that the kiss came so unexpectedly.

What the.._. oh._

He was wonderfully sensual. There was something very refreshing about that kiss. Ginny would reflect later on that it was the best kiss she'd ever had – not to mention the first. It was so soft, so pure… :sigh: Arion laid her gently against the pillows. She sat up a little while later, blinking her senses back. He was seventeen again.

"So no, I am not gay." he said frankly as though the entire demonstration was just that… a demonstration.

"A verbal answer would have sufficed you hormonal git. Get out, get out!"

Damascus woke from the screeching, the clawing and shoving and raised his head to see his young mistress manhandling the pretty boy. In fact, the boy didn't look all too bothered even if she had him by his lovely brown hair, slapping him the entire time while marching him out the door. The tiger buried his head into the sheets as the little harpy barrelled back into the room and threw herself at the pillows.

"Damascus… I hate him!"

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Ginny cringed at the memory of the night before. She'd not slept until around five in the morning and that proved completely futile as everyone woke at six not mention that her headache came right back the minute she began thinking about it again. As the Hogwarts Express sped through the mountainous and wooded landscape of Scotland she heaved a large sigh and rearranged Damascus on her lap.

She reckoned she'd have to report to the prefect's cabin soon… well, not until the First Years had shut up flashing heart eyes and giggles at the three preferred candidates. _Those three gits._ Who? Why, Draco Malfoy, Louis-Christian Pepinot, and Harry Potter.

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**Notes: **

**Le fond de l'étang:** Reference to the movie Les Choristes

**Pepinot:** Also from Les Choristes

**The little part with Arion being gay:** I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine. All of my best guy friends are gay, I love them. I thought I'd re-enact a part of it…

**So…** Is it Arion? Is it Harry? How about Draco? What's going on? OOOOOMMMMGGGGGGG.

Sorry about the long wait. Three words: I. Hate. School.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer**: Characters from the Harry Potter novels obviously belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Arion (Professor Caelestis), Kiribati, Harrumph's Wizarding Dictionary, "fuckage", Damasacus, and now… Louis-Christian Pepinot.

Author's Note: You know… when I was writing this… I was reading the original Author's Note that was written up here and it said, "It's Christmas Break… I'll try updating more often." How funny… it's now Spring Break. I must shamefully admit that it's taken me three months to update, and I most ask that no sharp projectiles be launched in my direction. Many thanks.

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Chapter 8: Skin

Closure… closureclosureclosure. Ginny was close to banging her head in rhythm with the little voice in the back of her mind. :Bangbangbang:. Okay, she was already there. There were little eleven year olds screaming, the trolley was rolling down the aisle some ways away, the train was tooting for no damnably good reason, Damascus was getting restless, and when had the bloody compartment reach the temperatures of a sauna?

Closure?

Eyes squeezed shut, she willed herself some peace. Psht. As if she'd had any since Arion came barging into her life, and now what? Did she have a _crush_ on him? Did she feel _butterflies_ in her stomach when he was around? Did she want to _kiss_ him again? Psht. No? Arion had taken her muddled brain and tossed it into a puddle and played a lively game of football with it. She groaned and rolled over. It was definitely time to get a breath of fresh, corridor air.

Sliding the door open, she found herself witnessing a truly heinous, ghastly but altogether hysterical sight. It was Malfoy. Actually it was a bunch of first year girls who strangely resembled greedy hags, their fingers reaching uncomfortably close to a cowering Draco Malfoy who'd been trapped at the back of the train. This was most unlike Draco. What happened Monsieur leSuave? Smirking slightly, she stepped out, "Virginia!" Scarily simultaneously, all the first years turned and pinned her with a gaze of he's-ours-come-near-him-and-suffer-the-death-of-evil-jealous-uber-mini-bitches. Ginny, slightly annoyed by this, smiled icily.

"Now, now girls, place nice. There's lots to go around." They looked at her questioningly, "He's quite cute isn't he?" That really did it. The entire lot of them exploded into agreement, and energetic demonstrations of devotion (a pig-tailed brunette yelped and threw herself at his feet… Malfoy cringed). Ginny shot him a look. "Actually, Draco and I have a bit of an appointment right now, ladies. Would you mind horribly if we excused ourselves?" There was a pregnant pause before a minute Armageddon was staged.

"What appointment!"

"She's taking him away!"

"Stop, right now!"

"What's happening!"

"She's taking him away!"

"Nooooooooooooo!"

"He's ours! He's mine!"

"HE'S MINE!"

"_SHE'S TAKING HIM AWAY_!" Ginny hoped to the dear lord that she hadn't been like this when she was their age. Sighing dramatically, she turned back to the girls to find that Draco was no longer plastered to the back of the train. In fact, he was holding her in front of him like a shield.

"Girls, perhaps you haven't heard, but Mr. Malfoy and I have an arrangement. We meet on a regular basis, and no one question us, no one stops us, it is accepted, it is common knowledge. You will not try anything. Yes? Yes." she said, before pivoting and walking down the corridor, closely followed by Draco. A car down, their pace slowed to a leisurely stroll, and Malfoy have reacquired his Slytherin arseholeness.

"So… we have an arrangement, do we?" he asked, smirk firmly in place.

"Of course, Mr. Malfoy, a quite inescapable one, I hope you don't mind?" Ginny asked with a purr. "It is called a Prefects' Meeting. It happens quite regularly, it is normally not questioned, it is most definitely not stopped, it is widely accepted, and it's blatant common knowledge." She stated, enjoying the various emotions fleeting across his features. "Now, I believe we were supposed to meet in compartment 32, am I right? Damascus, here, good kitty." Ginny scooped Damascus up into her arms and continued walking, leaving a slightly put-off, but altogether admiring Draco looking after her.

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"Prefect duties include nightly patrols. I understand that fifths years have O.W.L.s to prepare for so their patrols will be scheduled in moderation…" Ginny tried her hardest not to let her head fall through her hands. She was about to keel over from boredom. Prefects' meetings were among the most evil things in Ginny Land, things that ought to be punishable by law and be shut away in time capsules, buried deep beneath the earth… if only Ginny could get her hands on whoever invented the heinous theory behind Prefects' meetings, she would - . "Ginny!" She snapped awake. Hermione was glaring at her. Blinking innocently, she smiled sweetly for her. "What did I just say?"

"Well, darling Hermione, now that you've asked. I'd like to take this opportunity to reinforce your principles supporting the fact that we are indeed a fascist regime. No parties are to be allowed, deducting points is capital and the world _coooowers_ at our feet."

"Ginny, you were appointed as a prefect because _some better people_ believed you to be responsible. I'm sure you wouldn't like me to file a complaint on you on the first day." Now, that was utter uber anality if Ginny had ever encountered any. The fifth year prefects were looking at her expectantly. Well, how often was there a sixth year prefect sprawled on an entire bench herself, not even in robes, looking out the window while her tiger wreaked havoc on the tassels of the pillows, openly opposing The Hermione Granger.

"Well, that's unfortunate." She said, "I suppose it'll have to do then." She sighed, picking up Damascus reaching for the door of the compartment.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ginny pondered this for a second.

"Well, here's the thing Hermione, when a girl reaches a certain point in her life, normally around eleven or twelve years of age, her body goes through changes. Some of these changes make her need to visit the bathroom a lot once every month… Yes, it's all very new to you isn't it? No worries, my mother always told me that late bloomers make it up with… ah… _brains_."

From the corridor she could hear a sudden outburst of laughter which she'd later discover was largely Draco rolling around on the floor having convulsions. Ginny strolled down the corridor wondering where everyone had gone… normally it was crowded… hmm…

:FWUMP: Flour rained from the ceiling, balloons filled with water were tossed her way and she suddenly found herself stepping in a sticky mess of pitch. She heard a joint, "GINNERS!" before she was engulfed by a huge hulk of a thing…

Well, that hulk turned out to be Fred… and then George… and then Nico, Venice, and Jordan.

"George, Fred… what are you doing here!"

"Baby Ginners!"

"Baby sister!"

"Kisses and hugs!" Ginny stood there, tapping her toe, still covered in a white paste, expecting an answer. She was ecstatic to see her three best friends, but really… the sudden shower of cold water and flour? And the sudden appearance of graduated brothers? Graduated _twin_ brothers? Were she epileptic, they'd be sorry. Spinning her around, her brothers marched her down the corridor away from her friends who were casually following them.

"We are, darling sister," George said in hushed tones.

"Your new…"

"professors!" George finished with a flourished bow.

"Of basket weaving?" she asked loudly.

"Well no, but we're going to explain that in just a tad…" Fred slung her over her shoulder and marched the rest of the way down the hallway… _ah, that's where everyone went_, she thought as multiple heads shot out of compartments to find what all the noise was about. The famous Weasley twins were back, and the harpy-woman whom they couldn't identify was being carted off… thank god for small miracles.

In the same compartment in front of which she found the scary first year girls, Fred deposited Ginny on a bench. She wondered how many times this was going to happen… her two oafs for brothers were grinning like idiots in front of her. Finally, seeing as no one was going to break the silence, she sighed.

"All right, what is going on?"

"Delighted you asked!" said Fred, pulling a long parchment out of his robes. "I think this should help clear things up."

"Fred, my dear man…"

"Don't flatter yourself, George. I'm Natalia's man."

"Yeah… because she's so not under the Imperius."

"Why George, I didn't know you were so logical!" Ginny rolled her eyes and focused on the scroll.

_Mr and Mr Weasley,_

_I hope this letter finds you well and that you are taking the first summer break since your graduation to appreciate the freedoms associated with your coming of age. _(Ginny snorted… the entire wizarding population was aware Fred and George had been… "appreciating the freedoms" of free magic since waaaaaaay before coming of age) _As you must be aware, the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts has once again become available._

"Defence? Isn't Professor Caelestis doing defence?"

"Read on baby Ginners."

_We had previously considered Professor Caelestis for the position; however, due to externally assigned work, he has asked for assistance in his classes. I would like to extend the invitation for this post to you in confidence that you will set a good example for your students and lend energy to the subject._

_Yours Truly,_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts,_

_Order of Merlin, First Class,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Ginny paused. There's the logic… stupid Arion had bitten off more than he could chew with the dual personalities pitch, and now he needed "assistance" in class. Fantastic. "Well then… Defence."

"Yes, mother's rather proud of us… Professors and all that."

"Such a dear, that woman."

"Well, Miss Weasley. We look forward to a productive and educational year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with you. For the time being, we must visit the prefects' cabin."

"Say, shouldn't you be there?" asked George. Ginny snorted.

"Well, seeing as Hermione threatened to toss me out of prefect position, I really didn't see a good reason to be there." Fred heartily patted her back.

"Good on you. Excellent example to the masses." Ginny rolled her eyes and let her brothers file out. Waiting outside the compartment door for her were her three darlings. Nico immediately sprung forward and gathered her in a huge hug.

"I. Have. Not. Seen. You. In. Ages.", squeezing her with each word. Wrestling to keep herself alive, Ginny giggled.

"Well, you've been dethroned from Mr. Best-Looking this year, dear Nico… I'm afraid an old foe is once again taking over the title."

"Oh, the Pepinot boy? Yes, he's out breaking hearts already."

"What!"

"Well, there's that girl who was weeping in the corridor…"

"Yeah, Nico tried to comfort her, and she told him that Pepinot had replaced him in her heart…"

"And subsequently broke it." Ginny stared wide-eyed at them.

"Well… I had meant to say Draco Malfoy; however… Have I ever told you guys how freaky it is when you finish each others' sentences?"

"Plenty darling, but we're rather fine with that."

"Yes, you'll succumb to the urge soon…" said Nico sceptically.

Needless to say, it was good to be with them again. That was true Hogwarts spirit right there. Her three best friends belong to some of the most ancient and pure blooded families. Venice was a laNoble… of the Noble family, her name spoke for itself. The Ciarniellos – Nico's family, were second to none and tied with the Zabinis for pure blood in Italy. And Jordan was from one of England's strongest and most influential lines, the Knights. All in all, it seemed rather natural for the youngest members of the purebloods to bind together. Ginny, half-Prewett herself and part of the Weasley legacy, fit in comfortably.

She didn't exactly have the various estates that the laNobles acquired throughout the centuries, or own half of wizarding Italy, but she did have a family that did her proud: two Head Boys, a Quidditich captain, two of the most successful entrepreneurs, and Ron. Ron was a special one and an underappreciated one at that. Contrary to popular belief, he was not in love with Hermione Granger, nor did Ginny believe that he'd fall in love with her anytime soon. Ron was the brother who stayed at home with her when neither of them attended Hogwarts. They played chess, wreaked havoc and made wonderful sport out of degnoming the gardens. Ron was also the one who wrote to her daily when he did go to Hogwarts. Apart from Bill, and the twins, Ginny had to say that Ron was very close to her heart. Speaking of the twins…

"So, guess who'll be teaching us DADA this year, hmm?"

"Hopefully someone better looking than Umbridge." Nico said, shuddering, "…far better looking."

"Well, I'll have you know that our new professors are very becoming fellows, and there are _two_ of them, so it will be rather crowded." Ginny grinned. Nico sat back for the enws and Jordan started naming off potentials when –

"Oh god… the twins are teaching us aren't they?" whispered Venice, eyes wide. "YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES."

- Okay… Ginny wasn't expecting that.

"Say, Ginbean, is Fred quite single?" Venice asked with a tremendous smile, batting her excessively long eyelashes. Ginny blanched and smacked Venice over the head with her wand.

"No, and no, you are not going to date my brother…" she sputtered, "You'll probably end up having _pink_ children, and then where would we be?"

Venice scowled. She was very blonde… in the… Draco-Malfoyesque-platinum-fine-silky-amaaaaaaazing blonde way. And, Fred had red hair… so yes, pink children would result from the union and Ginny shuddered at the idea.

Nico pondered the idea thoughtfully, "Well, I suppose it'd be a good thing, they're plenty of fun. Speaking of which, you know that manor that my gramps have up in Cinque Terra?"

"You mean that sprawling forty acre estate with a huge castle at the very top? Yes, we do." Ginny said, drawling… damn her overly wealthy friends.

"Well, my parents are packing me off to stay there for half of winter break and I definitely don't want to be trapped there with my cousins alone."

"Oh, the horrid ones? What was her name… Michaela? Oooooh." Venice nodded knowingly. Two summers ago, Jordan, Venice, Ginny and Nico had the misfortune of staying at Nico's summer estate in Gloucester with his cousins-from-Roma and had discovered that the younger one – Michaela, had a penchant for compulsively lying/cheating/stealing/hitting/kicking/pinching/various other horrible things, and were not exactly fond of her.

"What I don't understand is why she would find it necessary to take things when she knows perfectly well that she'd be caught eventually _and _that she could afford getting it herself." Jordan said, recounting a particularly poignant event that included an enchanted looking glass and a ten story drop into the pool in Nico's backyard.

"Well, there's the thrill of possibly getting caught, and it's a perfect way to prove herself." Said Ginny matter-of-factly. Her friends ogled her for a moment, "What! I used to take Percy's wand and stuff all the time… it was lots of fun."

"Well, in any case, it's quite brilliant up there, plenty of water. Would you like to come?"

"Yes."

"Mmm."

"Ginny?" Ginny smoothed down Damascus's fur and sighed.

"I don't know. I might have to go travelling with family. We're going to pay Charlie a visit." All right, it was a lie altogether. Her parents _had_ mentioned seeing Charlie at some point… just not so soon. Ginny wasn't about to risk a development in the current situation back at Grimmauld Place or another visit to Lohengrin to gallivant in the Italian countryside… it would have been nice though.

"Well, if you ever do know, tell me?" Ginny nodded. "Anyway, I think we ought to change into our robes now, I don't want to have to carry them until we get there."

True, Hogwarts was still quite a ways off… the trolley hadn't even gotten to them yet. Nico took his robes out of the compartment to leave the girls some privacy. It was then, while reaching for her own robes, that Ginny was struck with a brilliant, if not risky, idea of her own. Wasn't this the perfect time to advertise her tattoo and see if anyone noticed? If anyone asked, she would say that it was a henna design. That would stifle any real concerns and word wouldn't get back to her brothers/professors/parents/entire population of the school.

Ginny pulled off her white tee and pranced around making a grand show of shaking out her collared school shirt, all the while, having her back facing Jordan and Venice. The other two didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary… In fact, they weren't looking at her at all, but fixated upon their own wardrobe. Annoyed, Ginny kicked her trunk hard and yelped, effectively gaining their attention.

"You know, Ginny, we really can't assess any damage if you aren't facing us." Jordan said flatly. So… they couldn't see the tattoo… or they weren't asking, damn it, Ginny had to know for sure.

"My back is smarting… Damascus scratched me earlier, is there anything on my back?"

"Well… not if you count… the lack of freckles… what on earth did you do, bleach your skin?" Ginny let out a breath. Well, at least it wasn't the tattoo.

"I didn't do anything to my back. I slept in the sun, played Quidditch and ate my mom's scones. Happy?"

"No." Venice announced. "I don't see why you can eat whatever you please, never do any real moving unless you count zipping around the sky on a broom – no real physical activity there, and come back from the summer with a perfect figure, and NO FRECKLES. Whatever happened to my gangly, spotted Ginbean… and no, there are no claw marks. It's like you have impenetrable skin." she said tragically. Ginny scowled – she had Lohengrin to blame for this one, she thought her freckles were cute, AND she liked her skin porcelain.

"Yes," she snapped, "well the sun will do that to you."

"I'm surprised you haven't burnt to a crisp." Stated Jordan, "I always thought that with your skin that you'd skip the tanning stage and move straight to tomato."

"Well, my apologies for acquiring a…" Ginny fought to categorize the shade of her skin. Was it tanned? No. Was it bronzed? No. It was porcelain anymore. "…and interesting shade of complexion!" she snapped, turning back to her trunk.

"You look like you're made of pixie dust."

"Excuse me?"

"Pixie dust… you know… shimmering, golden-ish. Because clearly, you're still… alabaster… you're just shiny."

"I'm what?"

"Sparkly is more like it.", countered Jordan. "Yes, that's what you are… you're sparkling… with gold sparkles."

Ginny stood in their pile of clothing regarding her two friends coolly… she was shiny, and sparkly and – The compartment door slid open and Nico strode in.

"Whoa! Sorry, I'll leave!" Nico said, snapping his eyes shut as he felt about for the door. Ginny turned bright red, looking down her not-yet-dressed self. She was standing there in her bra. Fantastic. Pulling on her school skirt and shirt, she opened the compartment door to let Nico in. He didn't seem at all flustered. It wasn't surprising, he was accustomed to having about a dozen girls fawn over him at the beach during summertime – what could Ginny say, Nicolas Ciarniello was a god. "You're shimmery." He observed.

"What!"

"No, look, your skin… it's shimmery." He said, ducking from her ever-swinging wand. "What! Stop trying to hit me."

Ginny's hair was everywhere, and her eyes were quite brilliant. This was not good. "In the past five minutes my skin has gone from alabaster to shiny to sparkly and now it's SHIMMERY?"

"Actually, I agree… it isn't sparkly. Sparkly would require actual bobbles… and you haven't got any… you're decidedly shimmery." proclaimed Venice, slipping into Oxford shoes. "And now, I'm hungry." She declared, bringing a swift end to the conversation.

Ginny assessed what she'd learned… of course, she'd learned at her freckles had disappeared, she learned that her skin was alabaster/shiny/sparkly/shimmery, but most importantly, she'd learned that her friends couldn't see her tattoo… which made it very plausible that no one else could either… hmm…

Happy with this latest observation, Ginny followed her troupe out of the compartment to find the trolley lady. This was good. This was very good.


End file.
